Tag Archives: Alex Cole-Hamilton

Mark Valladares

17 June 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 17th June 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • NI tax hike: Government must scrap damaging jobs tax
  • Trump tariff deal: Govt must come clean and publish impact assessment
  • Lib Dem MP to take Thames Water to the Supreme Court
  • Rennie responds to school leaver deprivation gap widening
  • SNP miss key targets for drug treatment and care
  • Rennie: Will another 77 pages of school violence guidance change anything?
  • Cole-Hamilton: NHS, care and economy at the heart of liberal vision

NI tax hike: Government must scrap damaging jobs tax

Commenting as S&W’s business owners sentiment survey revealed around a third of business owners have said they plan to cut more jobs after being hit by higher national insurance contributions, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Unfortunately, this confirms what we knew from the start – that the unfair National Insurance tax hike is a massive hammer blow to businesses already struggling to cope, and will lead to people losing their jobs or seeing their salaries suppressed.

Small businesses are the engine of our economy and the backbone of our communities. After all the damage they faced under the last Conservative Government, the government should be doing everything it can to support them.

Ministers need to go back to the drawing board, scrap this damaging jobs tax that holds back economic growth, and instead ask the big banks and social media giants to pay their fair share of tax.

Trump tariff deal: Govt must come clean and publish impact assessment

Responding to the news that the UK-US trade deal has been partially signed off by Donald Trump, Daisy Cooper MP, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson and Deputy Leader, said:

The Government needs to come clean on the full details of this deal – including publishing impact assessments on how it will affect British farmers, food standards and steel industry. When you’re dealing with someone as unreliable as Trump, you have to read the small print.

If precedent is anything to go by, Trump will be working behind the scenes to extract more concessions. We need a cast-iron guarantee that the NHS will be exempt from any kind of Trump deal and that US tech giants won’t be given a tax cut.

Lib Dem MP to take Thames Water to the Supreme Court

Liberal Democrat MP Charlie Maynard will be appealing to the Supreme Court, and asking them to hear his case against the Thames Water (TW) restructuring plan.

This follows Charlie’s case earlier in the year which was heard in the High Court. Charlie is arguing that the public and customer interests should be taken into account for this restructuring plan given Thames Water provides essential public services and has a monopoly over customers, and that the Court should not leave it up to the Secretary of State or Ofwat to decide whether there are any public interest objections.

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Mark Valladares

12 June 2025 – the Scottish press releases

By Mark Valladares | Sun 15th June 2025 - 7:30 am
  • Cole-Hamilton: Youth work is key to tackling youth violence
  • Cole-Hamilton to Swinney: Do the right thing and give Fornethy survivors access to Redress
  • Wishart comments on energy report calling for delay to RTS switch off
  • Cole-Hamilton calls for investment in concrete youth work after summit

Cole-Hamilton: Youth work is key to tackling youth violence

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and former youth worker Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today called for greater investment in youth work ahead of a summit on youth violence.

Later today, Alex will attend a cross-party summit hosted by the First Minister on tackling youth violence and knife crime.

It follows a recent spate of violent incidents involving young people across the country, including the murder of 16 year-old Kayden Moy on Irvine Beach.

Before entering politics, Alex was a youth worker. During that time, he worked with a range of vulnerable young people, including those who had grown up in the care system and children who had been trafficked to Scotland.

Commenting ahead of the summit, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

For the best part of twenty years, I was a youth worker, helping some of the most disengaged young people get their lives back on track.

That experience taught me that no child is inherently bad. Most of the time, they are just in need of some direction, a need that has only been fuelled by the isolating impact of lockdown.

That’s where youth work comes in: it provides young people with the direction they need and gives them a positive adult role model who is neither a teacher nor a parent.

It teaches teenagers to come out of their comfort zone, helps them rebuild their sense of self-worth and fosters a whole host of key life skills.

Since the pandemic, however, the SNP have presided over the quiet death of youth work. Budgets have been squeezed, services have struggled to survive, just when we need them the most.

While acts of violence require a strong response, punishing predominantly law-abiding young people cannot be our broader solution. We need youth work to pre-empt and prevent those acts of violence, to properly engage young people in society and lay the foundations for them to succeed in life.

Cole-Hamilton to Swinney: Do the right thing and give Fornethy survivors access to Redress

Ahead of a members’ business debate in the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has urged John Swinney to do the right thing and grant the Fornethy House survivors access to the Redress compensation scheme.

The Scottish Government’s Redress Scheme pays out up to £100,000 and offers support to those abused in residential care.

More than 200 women have now come forward alleging that they were sexually, physically and mentally abused in the 1960s and 70s at Fornethy House- an all-girls residential school in Angus.

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Mark Valladares

10 June 2025 – the rest of today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 10th June 2025 - 11:45 pm
  • Cole-Hamilton: Crisis-hit care sector deserves better than a dog’s dinner
  • More than 300 drug deaths in first quarter of 2025
  • Welsh unemployment rise: Labour must scrap their Jobs Tax
  • Fraud and computer misuse make up two fifths of all crime
  • Greenhouse gas stats show Scottish Government has “consistently failed”
  • Greene calls for urgent national review of rural transport

Cole-Hamilton: Crisis-hit care sector deserves better than a dog’s dinner

Ahead of a final vote in the Scottish Parliament on the Care (Reform) Scotland Bill, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said carers deserve better and that the SNP should apologise for making “a dog’s dinner” of the legislation.

SNP ministers originally proposed a National Care Service to centralise social care services. Scottish Liberal Democrats were the only party to oppose this from the very beginning.

In recent budget negotiations, Scottish Liberal Democrats put a stop to the SNP wasting money on their doomed centralisation, secured millions more for social care and fashioned a new pipeline for care workers through colleges. Liberal Democrats have also called for a new UK-wide national minimum wage for carers that is £2 higher and for care providers to be exempt from the national insurance hike.

Speaking ahead of the vote, which will take place in National Carers Week, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

The care sector is in crisis and the SNP have shown that they can’t be trusted to fix it.

SNP ministers should apologise to care users and providers across the country for making such a dog’s dinner of this legislation.

Scottish Liberal Democrats were the only party to oppose the SNP’s power grab from day one. We forced it out of the budget after the SNP had thrown away £30 million – money that could have paid the annual salaries of 1,200 care workers.

Carers deserve better and only the Liberal Democrats will deliver a fair deal. We introduced free personal care in Scotland, enshrined the right to carers leave in employment law and have just won a change that will enable family carers to earn more. Ed Davey put it at the heart of our manifesto and has opened up on his own life as a carer.

Carers – paid and unpaid, young and old – do a critical job. They deserve far more support but are too often forgotten and ignored. It’s why our plans would see care workers properly rewarded, high quality care for everyone who needs it and unpaid carers given the fair deal they deserve.

More than 300 drug deaths in first quarter of 2025

Responding to new figures showing that there were 308 suspected drug deaths in the first three months of 2025, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

100 people a month are dying in Scotland’s drug deaths crisis. It is nothing short of a national tragedy.

Drug misuse casts a long shadow across Scotland. That’s why my party made access to drug and alcohol services a major part of our budget negotiations earlier this year.

As a former youth worker with a charity that focused on parental substance use, I was pleased to secure support for a new facility for mothers and their babies born addicted to drugs. That’s key to getting people on the right path, but there is still a mountain to climb.

Scottish Liberal Democrats would give our country the world-class drug services it deserves. From rolling out a nationwide network of safer consumption rooms to new drug checking facilities, it’s time ministers listened to our calls.

Welsh unemployment rise: Labour must scrap their Jobs Tax

Responding to the latest figures showing unemployment in Wales at 4.7%, up 1.3 percentage points on the year, and that the number of paid employees in Wales has decreased by 5,300; Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick MP said:

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Mark Valladares

5 June 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 5th June 2025 - 11:45 pm
  • Royal College of Radiologists report: if Government “doesn’t take its head out of the sand” patients will “pay the price”
  • Zia Yusuf resignation: leading UK DOGE by example
  • Lib Dems make final pitch to Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse voters
  • Scotland has worst shortage of oncologists in UK
  • Local MP uncovers rail funding scandal

  • Royal College of Radiologists report: if Government “doesn’t take its head out of the sand” patients will “pay the price”

    Responding to two reports by the Royal College of Radiologists, which revealed that 9 in 10 cancer centre leaders reported delays to patients starting treatment, and 7 in 10 were concerned about staff shortages putting patient safety at risk, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:

    This report should be yet another wake up call for Ministers that they cannot ignore the crisis in cancer any longer. We are seeing waiting times grow longer and the rate of early diagnosis stall, with the Government at risk of sleepwalking through a disaster while patients face dangerous delays and overstretched NHS staff are left at breaking point.

    If the Government doesn’t take its head out of the sand and act now, it is patients who will pay the price. The upcoming NHS workforce plan must rapidly expand the number of cancer nurses and modernise treatment before more lives are put at risk.

    The Liberal Democrats have long been campaigning to ensure the conditions are in place to guarantee patients can start their treatment within two months of an urgent referral to get them the care they deserve.

    Zia Yusuf resignation: leading UK DOGE by example

    Responding to Zia Yusuf resigning as Reform UK Chairman, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:

    By sacking himself, Zia Yusuf seems to be leading the “UK DOGE” by example. You have to admire his commitment to the cause.

    It’s already clear Reform UK cannot deliver for the communities they are elected to stand up for. Instead, they have copied the Conservative playbook of fighting like rats in a sack.

    Lib Dems make final pitch to Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse voters

    Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Aisha Mir has made her final pitch to voters, pledging a vision of a Scotland that is back to its best.

    Aisha Mir is a businesswoman, Children’s Panel member and carer who has also served as the party’s spokesperson for human rights and older people.

    She has been active in a number of projects & campaigns supporting unpaid carers, welfare for the elderly, human rights, diversity and inequality.

    Aisha Mir, Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, said:

    For too many people, it feels like nothing works anymore.

    The SNP have failed Scotland for eighteen years. The Conservatives are lurching to extremes. Labour are already letting people down. Reform have no real solutions.

    I’m in politics to get things done. I want to be a hard working local champion who will put your priorities first.

    Only the Scottish Liberal Democrats are offering you a vision of a Scotland that is back to its best.

    A Scotland where people can see a GP and an NHS dentist in good time.

    A Scotland that once again gives our children a world-class education.

    A Scotland with a growing economy and growing businesses, where the government looks after your money and works with our neighbours.

    Vote Scottish Liberal Democrat for a candidate who is focused on what really matters to you.

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Mark Valladares

3 June 2025 – today’s press releases (part 2)

By Mark Valladares | Tue 3rd June 2025 - 11:00 pm
  • Lib Dems slam Labour’s defence of rail funding injustice as “desperate”
  • Cole-Hamilton: Fix care to fix the NHS
  • Scot Lib Dems comment on road death figures

Lib Dems slam Labour’s defence of rail funding injustice as “desperate”

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have sharply criticised the Labour Government following comments from Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Transport Ken Skates, who appeared to defend the UK Government’s position on rail funding for Wales.

The row was sparked by information uncovered by the Welsh Liberal Democrats, revealing that the new multi-billion-pound Oxford-Cambridge East-West rail line is set to be designated as an “England and Wales” project.

This classification could deprive Wales of an additional £360 million in consequential rail funding for its own network.

In response, Ken Skates claimed the UK Labour Government “acknowledges that it shortchanges Wales” and pointed to an “ambitious pipeline of improvements” for Welsh rail. However, the Welsh Liberal Democrats dismissed his defence as “desperate,” noting that no major rail projects are currently planned for Wales.

The Lib Dems have argued that the current evidence shows that any new funding from the UK Government in the spending review is likely to be minor, and not make up for the large shortfalls caused by the use of the “England and Wales” classification over recent years.

The party also referenced a Freedom of Information request they submitted, which revealed that neither North nor South Wales electrification is being actively considered by Labour.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds stated that the UK Labour Government could immediately reclassify HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail, and East-West Rail as “England-only” projects—freeing up funds for Wales. She also highlighted that the government could easily bring forward legislation to devolve rail powers fully to the Welsh Government if it had the political will to do so.

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Mark Valladares

3 June 2025 – today’s press releases (part 1)

By Mark Valladares | Tue 3rd June 2025 - 9:30 pm
  • Cancer in the UK report: progress in fighting disease must be “celebrated” but “cannot become complacent”
  • Interim Water Commission: cleaning up water industry will “take more than a hose down”
  • Govt needs to bite the bullet and put Thames Water into special administration
  • Health and social care services face £200 million overspend

Cancer in the UK report: progress in fighting disease must be “celebrated” but “cannot become complacent”

Responding to the Cancer Research UK’s Cancer in the UK report, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:

The progress that we have made in fighting cancer in recent decades must be celebrated, but we cannot become complacent. There is still so much more we need to do.

We are seeing waiting times grow longer and the rate of early diagnosis stall, all of which could see us squander these years of progress that have given many people the chance to live long and healthy lives.

To do that, we need to see the Government show real ambition in rebuilding cancer services by investing in more radiology machines and rapidly expanding the number of cancer nurses.

That needs to lead us to a point where patients have a legal right to start their treatment within two months of an urgent referral so they can get the care they deserve and potentially save thousands of lives.

Interim Water Commission: cleaning up water industry will “take more than a hose down”

Responding to Sir John Cunliffe’s interim water commission report, Tim Farron MP, Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson, said:

This report makes it painfully clear that water companies can pollute and make profit with impunity – all at customers’ expense. At the heart of the sewage scandal is a regulatory system which has failed.

It’s going to take more than a hose down to clean up the water industry. It’s time for Ofwat to go and the Commission must now make this plain.

If Ofwat remains in name or nature, the government will have failed in their aims to improve our waterways and address public outrage with serious regulatory reform.

Liberal Democrats will continue our campaign to replace Ofwat with a new regulator to clean up our waterways for good.

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Mark Valladares

2 June 2025 – today’s other press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 2nd June 2025 - 11:55 pm
  • Cole-Hamilton challenges Farage to pronounce Scottish place names
  • Outrage as Oxford-Cambridge Rail Project classed as “England & Wales”
  • Farage attacks on media are “Trumpian”
  • Lib Dems comment on Farage skipping media

Cole-Hamilton challenges Farage to pronounce Scottish place names

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today accused Nigel Farage of playing a con on the people of Scotland as the Reform UK leader makes his first visit to Scotland since being chased into an Edinburgh pub in 2013.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

Nigel Farage is trying to con Scots.

If you live in Kirkcudbright, Milngavie, Penicuik or Garioch, Nigel Farage has absolutely nothing to offer you. He probably wouldn’t even be able pronounce your town.

He’ll breeze in promising the world but with no actual plan for how to make people’s lives better.

I understand that a lot of people are frustrated that they have been let down by the SNP, Conservatives and Labour but it’s the Liberal Democrats who are offering real change, not Reform. We are passionate local campaigners focused on getting you swift access to local healthcare and ensuring that schools are safe places for our kids.

Last year’s general election and the recent English local elections show that we are winning again. If you want change, come with us.

Outrage as Oxford-Cambridge Rail Project classed as “England & Wales”

Wales Short-Changed Again as £6.6bn Rail Investment Project in the Home Counties Results in No Consequential Funding for Wales

The UK Government has confirmed that Wales will not receive Barnett consequentials from the £6.6 billion East-West Rail project between Oxford and Cambridge — a decision that has been slammed by the Welsh Liberal Democrats as yet another example of Labour short-changing Wales on vital infrastructure funding.

Despite the rail scheme being entirely in England, the Treasury has confirmed Wales will not receive Barnett consequentials from the project. Were Wales to be treated like Scotland, it could have received around £360 million in consequential funding to spend on transport projects in Wales.

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Mark Valladares

30 May/1 June – a long weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 2nd June 2025 - 11:41 am
  • Military housing: high time for Govt to “get out of the slow lane” and apply decent homes standard
  • Lib Dems on Healey comments: Government “dragging its feet” on reversing Army cuts
  • IFS Briefing: Lib Dems say Government ministers will be “bailing water from a sinking boat with a spoon” if they ignore fixing social care
  • Welsh Lib Dems Respond to Mark Drakeford National Insurance Bombshell
  • Scottish Government rebuked by own watchdog over sewage dumping

Military housing: high time for Govt to “get out of the slow lane” and apply decent homes standard

Responding to the Government’s military housing announcement today , Helen Maguire MP, Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson, said:

We’ve been fighting for the Government to get out of the slow lane when it comes to fixing the homes of our military families for years. After years of the Conservatives turning a blind eye, I’m glad to see this Government has finally come to their senses and listened.

Those bravely defending our country deserve proper housing without leaks, mould, floods and freezing temperatures.

But it’s disappointing to see the Government refuse to commit to bring all military homes under the decent homes standard – a change the Lib Dems will continue to champion, so no military family has to suffer in a second-rate home.

Lib Dems on Healey comments: Government “dragging its feet” on reversing Army cuts

Responding to Defence Secretary John Healey confirming that the British Army will not be increased in size this parliament, Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson Helen Maguire said:

From lax recruitment goals to slow spending promises, the Government is simply not addressing our defence issues urgently enough. The previous Conservative governments irresponsibly slashed troop numbers, and it’s desperately disappointing to now see Labour dragging its feet on reversing those reckless cuts.

With a war raging on our continent and the twin dangers of an unreliable Trump and an imperialist Putin, we are presented with a once-in-a-generation threat to the UK’s security.

It’s time the Government committed to urgently reversing the Conservatives’ 10,000 troop cut to address that threat.

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Mark Valladares

30 May 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Fri 30th May 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • More than 90% of standard-rate PIP claimants could be at risk of losing support in some areas
  • UK-Gulf trade deal: Govt must not sell out farmers and undermine high standards
  • Cole-Hamilton: Scottish Water plan must ensure no more disappointments

More than 90% of standard-rate PIP claimants could be at risk of losing support in some areas

55 constituencies in England could see 90% of those claiming the standard rate of Personal Independence Payment for daily living activities lose at least some of the benefit following the Government’s cuts, a Written Parliamentary Question by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

Under the Government’s plans, from November 2026 people on PIP will be required to score a minimum of four points in at least one daily living activity to receive support with everyday tasks such as washing and cooking. Those scoring less will lose access to the “daily living” component, which for some will result in a full withdrawal of the benefit.

In England and Wales, every constituency currently sees at least 80% of those receiving the standard rate of PIP at risk of losing support. A staggering 55 constituencies have at least 90% of claimants that fall into this category.

The constituencies with the highest number of those at risk of having support slashed are in Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney and Tipton and Wednesbury, both with 92% of standard-rate of PIP claimants not scoring four points on all categories of the Government’s test. The worst affected region was Wales where 90% of those on standard-rate PIP did not score four points.

The Liberal Democrats said that it “lays bare the scale of the damage” the cuts could do, adding to people’s worry and “increasing pressure on local areas where these cuts go the deepest”. The party called on the Government to recognise the cuts’ “devastating impact” and “change course”.

Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions spokesperson, Steve Darling MP said:

This lays bare the scale of the damage that the Government’s cuts could do to some of society’s most vulnerable.

Vast swathes of people could be missing out on vital support, not only adding to their suffering but increasing pressure on local areas where these cuts go the deepest.

This is support that helps people with daily tasks that many of us would take for granted, such as staying clean or staying safe and also helps many people stay in work.

The Government must recognise the devastating impact that these cuts could have and change course.

UK-Gulf trade deal: Govt must not sell out farmers and undermine high standards

Responding to reports that the UK Government is set to sign a new trade agreement with the Gulf States, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson and Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:

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Mark Valladares

29 May 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 29th May 2025 - 11:15 pm
  • Davey on tariffs: summon the US ambassador as Trump chaos “putting Liz Truss to shame”
  • “Scandal” as 400 military families forced to face emergency housing repairs over VE day anniversary
  • Greene comments on stalemate fears over Ardrossan harbour buyout plan
  • Fiscal forecasts expose SNP financial mismanagement coming home to roost
  • Lib Dems back Presiding Officer in Ross row
  • Cole-Hamilton calls for national RAAC fund

Davey on tariffs: summon the US ambassador as Trump chaos “putting Liz Truss to shame”

Responding to the US Court of International Trade ruling that blocks many of Trump’s tariffs, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

The Government must urgently summon the US ambassador to clarify what this court ruling means for Starmer’s recent deal with Donald Trump. The levels of chaos from Trump’s economic policy is putting Liz Truss to shame.

“Scandal” as 400 military families forced to face emergency housing repairs over VE day anniversary

New research obtained by the Liberal Democrats has revealed that 442 military families had to call for urgent repairs on their state-provided housing over the week of VE-day commemorations – with a massive 64,000 requests for urgent repairs clocking up since January 2024.

Parliamentary questions submitted by the Liberal Democrats have revealed that over 440 urgent repair requests were filed by service families in state-provided military homes over the VE-day week.

The party has condemned the Government’s “hypocrisy” as the statistics have come to light. They’ve said it’s “a scandal” that so many serving families had to deal with the fallout of poor accommodation, particularly during a week of celebration for the service of the UK’s Armed Forces personnel and veterans.

The investigation, led by Helen Maguire – the party’s defence spokesperson – also revealed that a massive 64,258 urgent repair requests had been filed by military families since January 2024.

The harsh winter months saw the highest number of callouts by families in military homes, with 5,921 urgent requests submitted in January 2024 and 5,546 in January 2025.

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Mark Valladares

28 May 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 28th May 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • Thames Water must be turned into a public benefit company
  • Prepayment Meters: victims must see compensation before the winter and debts fully written off
  • Defra cuts: Government treating rural communities with “gobsmacking contempt”
  • Police chiefs letter: police and criminal justice systems need “real leadership” say Lib Dems
  • Scot Lib Dems call for new treatment pathways for neurodiversity
  • McArthur writes to MSPs as France backs assisted dying
  • Jardine calls for the scrapping of the Two Child Cap

Thames Water must be turned into a public benefit company

Speaking on the £122.7m fine handed down to Thames Water, Lib Dem Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs Spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:

This is shocking but hardly surprising. Thames Water has been failing for years; failing to invest, failing to maintain, and failing to deliver, and all the while it has been dumping sewage in our rivers and waterways. It has saddled customers with its debts and provided them with shoddy service in the meantime.

This should be the final nail in the coffin for Thames Water. It needs to be turned into a public benefit company and Ofwat needs to be scrapped and replaced with a real regulator with teeth.

Prepayment Meters: victims must see compensation before the winter and debts fully written off

Responding to the announcement that thousands of energy customers are set to receive payouts of up to £1,000 each in response to the prepayment meters scandal, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and long-time campaigner on this issue Wera Hobhouse said:

It is high-time that the victims of this scandal are recognised and properly compensated after energy companies rode rough-shod over them in this disgraceful way. Those affected have already waited too long for justice. Pay outs now need to be made in time for the winter months, when we know energy costs are higher.

The Conservative Party neglected these victims and ignored Liberal Democrat attempts to prevent more people suffering forced installations. Today they should feel ashamed of their failures.

And to think that some may still not have all their debt written off is simply not right. These companies need to write off the debts they forced upon the people who bore the brunt of this scandal.

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Mark Valladares

26-27 May 2025 – two days of press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 27th May 2025 - 10:45 pm
  • Nearly 2 million to be hit by £9 billion “stealth tax bombshell” by the end of the decade
  • Labour needs to “learn to u-turn faster” on two-child benefit cap
  • Davey on Farage speech: “Trussonomics on steroids”
  • Triple lock: from privatising the NHS now Farage “wants to come after people’s pensions”
  • Badenoch must rule out Rupert Lowe joining Conservatives
  • 9,523 Scots waiting on social care assessment or care package

Nearly 2 million to be hit by £9 billion “stealth tax bombshell” by the end of the decade

The Labour government’s plans to maintain the income tax threshold freezes introduced by the Conservatives mean that an estimated additional 1.9 million people will be hit, forcing them to shell out close to an estimated £9 billion in additional tax receipts by the end of the decade, House of Commons Library research, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, has revealed.

The Labour government has said that income tax threshold freezes for both the Personal Allowance and the higher rate of income tax will be maintained until April 2028. The impact means that between 2025/26 and 2029/30 an estimated 1.9 million people will be forced to pay a higher rate of tax due to these threshold freezes.

It means for those millions impacted, they will be forced to shell out an estimated £8.9 billion in additional tax as a result of the freezes by the end of the decade.

It follows on from the previous Conservatives government’s decision to freeze tax thresholds in April 2021. The House of Commons Library research says the impact of that 2021 freeze combined with the Labour government’s decision to maintain the freeze means that an estimated additional 7.625 million people will have been dragged into higher tax bands by the end of the decade. That is the equivalent to one in nine of the current UK population.

The total additional tax bill since the 2021 freeze will reach roughly £33.2 billion by 2029/30, rising from £24.3 billion this year.

The hardest hit areas will be London and the South East, where people in both regions hit by the stealth tax will pay out an estimated £3 billion in additional tax from now until the end of the decade. In total, London and the South East will have paid out £11.3 billion in additional taxes by the end of the decade since the April 2021 freeze.

The Liberal Democrats said that the “Conservative economic vandalism led us into this mess, but this Labour government has proven clueless in generating the growth needed to break this stagnation”. The party added that the only way to bring down the tax bill was through meaningful growth and that needed to come from the Government scrapping its jobs tax and negotiating a bespoke UK-EU customs union.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said:

During the midst of the worst cost of living crisis for a generation, people are now set to be hammered once again by this stealth tax bombshell.

People should be rewarded for their hard-work, not seeing earnings ripped away through these punitive measures.

The Conservatives’ economic vandalism led us into this mess, but this Labour government has proven clueless in generating the growth needed to break this stagnation.

The only way we can bring the tax bill down, protect family finances and rebuild public services is through meaningful economic growth. That has to come from scrapping the Government’s jobs tax and negotiating a bespoke UK-EU customs union to free our businesses from a Gordian Knot of red tape.

Labour needs to “learn to u-turn faster” on two-child benefit cap

Responding to Bridget Phillipson telling the Today programme that scrapping the two-child benefit cap is “on the table”, Daisy Cooper MP, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson and Deputy Leader, said:

The heartless two-child limit has to go – no ifs, no buts.

Dangling hope in front of desperate parents is inexcusable. Continuing to punish children just for being born is unforgivable.

The public is fed up of a government failing to deliver change – Labour needs to learn to u-turn faster.

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Mark Valladares

24-25 May 2025 – the weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Sun 25th May 2025 - 11:00 pm
  • Number of lung cancer patients not treated within two-month standard rises by 40% with some waiting more than a year
  • Winter Fuel Payments: Govt needs to complete world’s slowest u-turn
  • Cole-Hamilton reveals constituencies with most sewage spills and those with no monitoring
  • Greene urges government to keep a record of online sextortion offences

Number of lung cancer patients not treated within two-month standard rises by 40% with some waiting more than a year

The number of lung cancer patients not treated within the 62-day standard from a referral has risen by 40% since 2019 to 3,750 last year

One patient waited 481 days to begin treatment following a referral for lung cancer with hundreds waiting longer than four months for care in 2024

Liberal Democrat MP Clive Jones, a cancer campaigner and cancer survivor himself, has now written to the Health Secretary following the closure of the call to evidence for the National Cancer Plan demanding a target for 100% of patients beginning treatment within 62-days

The number of lung cancer patients waiting longer than the 62-day referral to treatment standard has risen by 41% since 2019, with 3,750 patients enduring waits of at least two-months last year, Freedom of Information requests (FOIs) by Lib Dem MP Clive Jones’ office have revealed.

Jones’ office received responses from 65 of the 144 NHS Trusts meaning the true number of lung cancer patients not treated within the 62-day standard is likely far higher. From those Trusts that did respond, it showed that those treated outside of the 62-days rose from 2,660 in 2019, to 3,750 last year, a rise of 41%.

The data also revealed the number of people waiting more than four-months to receive treatment, more than double the time expected for the standard. It showed 717 people last year waiting at least four-months, double 2019’s figure of 356. Trusts also responded with the longest time that someone had waited to begin lung cancer treatment with Bedfordshire Hospitals reporting a wait of 481 days.

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Mark Valladares

20 May 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 20th May 2025 - 11:20 pm
  • Health Foundation mortality report: must be a “wake-up call” for Government to turnaround these “unacceptable statistics”
  • Winter Fuel Payment: u-turn taking so long it puts “turning an oil tanker around to shame”
  • Jamie Greene taking on additional role as transport spokesperson
  • Lib Dems: UK Govt must ensure households compensated if worse off after RTS shutdown
  • Rennie: Decline in college staff shows SNP neglect of further education
  • McArthur comments on young offender death inquiry
  • Greene responds to Liberty Steel news
  • Cole-Hamilton presses SNP over failure to deliver Erasmus replacement

Health Foundation mortality report: must be a “wake-up call” for Government to turnaround these “unacceptable statistics”

Responding to a report by The Health Foundation, which revealed that by 2023, female mortality rates in the UK were 14% higher when compared with the median of 21 other high-income countries, with male mortality rates 9% higher, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:

Preventing avoidable deaths and protecting the public’s health should be at the top of any Government’s priorities and to see it neglected in this way, bringing immeasurable suffering to people and their loved ones, should be a wake-up call to us all.

The Conservatives’ catastrophic mismanagement of the NHS and their savage cuts to public health support have brought us to this point but the Labour government has shown nowhere near the ambition required to repair these unacceptable statistics.

It is not good enough for ministers to sit on their hands and watch the NHS and the opportunity to live a healthy life decay in this way. We need to see the Government step in as a matter of urgency, to reverse the cuts to the public health grant and bring an end to these devastating deaths.

Winter Fuel Payment: u-turn taking so long it puts “turning an oil tanker around to shame”

Responding to the Chancellor’s comments that she will listen to concerns over the Government’s decision to cut winter fuel payments, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

This U-turn is taking so long it puts turning an oil tanker around to shame.

The Government should feel embarrassed that it has taken a dire set of a local election results to realise what everyone has known from the start: this policy was doomed to fail and punished some of the most vulnerable.

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Mark Valladares

19 May 2025 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 20th May 2025 - 10:35 pm

A day later than usual, as I was busy being “gloriously” re-elected as Chair of Creeting St Peter Parish Council…

  • Davey on UK-EU deal: “positive first steps” but PM must ignore Reform and Conservative “dinosaurs”
  • Youth Mobility Scheme: UK needs “explicit details” not “woolly commitments”
  • UK-EU deal: with “more ambition” economic benefits could have been “ten times greater”
  • Scottish Water failure to follow up Holy Loch spilling “woefully complacent”

Davey on UK-EU deal: “positive first steps” but PM must ignore Reform and Conservative “dinosaurs”

Responding to reports that the UK and EU have reached a deal to be announced later today, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

These seem to be some positive first steps in rebuilding our relationship with Europe after years of a Conservative Party that wrecked trust and broke our relationship with our closest allies.

The Prime Minister must ignore the naysayers and dinosaurs in Reform and the Conservative Party and be more ambitious in getting the best deal in the national interest.

Youth Mobility Scheme: UK needs “explicit details” not “woolly commitments”

Responding to reports that a youth mobility scheme has been agreed only in principle, Liberal Democrat Europe Spokesperson, James MacCleary MP said:

After months of flip-flopping, it appears the Government won’t get a youth mobility scheme over the line today.

That’s incredibly disappointing – we need more than just a woolly commitment. While an agreement in principle marks progress after months of Lib Dem pressure on this issue, we should have been able to negotiate a scheme at today’s summit, rather than kicking the can once more down the road.

The Government must make it an urgent priority after talks end to map out explicit details on how and when the youth scheme will be introduced.

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Mark Valladares

16-18 May 2025 – the (long) weekend’s press releases (part 3)

By Mark Valladares | Mon 19th May 2025 - 11:20 am
  • Davey on UK-EU Summit: PM must be ambitious and not “dragged back” by Badenoch and Farage
  • £5bn from Youth Mobility Scheme would give Government “nowhere to hide” on winter fuel payment, say Lib Dems
  • Davey on care visas: ‘Don’t leave our loved ones in the lurch’
  • 2024 worst on record for ambulance equipment faults

Davey on UK-EU Summit: PM must be ambitious and not “dragged back” by Badenoch and Farage

Ahead of the UK-EU Summit, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has urged the Prime Minister to be “bold and ambitious for our country” and ignore “dinosaurs fighting old battles” in Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage.

The Lib Dems wrote to Labour MPs over the weekend, urging them to back closer trade ties with the EU to boost the public finances and avoid cuts to support for vulnerable families and pensioners.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said:

Keir Starmer must be bold and ambitious for our country in today’s summit. Voters were promised change by this government, and they have to deliver.

Being truly ambitious, including a new UK-EU customs union, would be the single biggest thing ministers could do to boost growth and fix the public finances.

Anything less would be a choice to limit growth, harming living standards and hitting the NHS and other public services.

The Prime Minister must ignore the dinosaurs fighting old battles, who want to drag us back to the destructive Brexit wars of the past, and focus on getting the best deal possible for the UK.

£5bn from Youth Mobility Scheme would give Government “nowhere to hide” on winter fuel payment, say Lib Dems

The Centre for European Reform claims that a Youth Mobility Scheme could add 0.45% to GDP over the long-term. New House of Commons Library analysis commissioned by the Liberal Democrats suggests that such growth could add roughly £5 billion to exchequer revenues a year.

The House of Commons Library has estimated that if GDP was 0.45% higher this could mean an additional tax revenue of around £5 billion a year in the long-run. The 0.45% figure was arrived at by a Centre for European Reform study on the economic impact of a Youth Mobility Scheme between the UK and EU.

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Mark Valladares

16-18 May 2025 – the (long) weekend’s press releases (part 2)

By Mark Valladares | Sun 18th May 2025 - 11:00 pm
  • Lib Dems urge Labour MPs to back closer trade with EU which could raise £25 billion a year and avoid welfare cuts
  • Record low number of frontline NHS staff receive flu jabs this winter as some areas see less than one in 10 vaccinated
  • Youth Mobility Scheme news a ‘glimmer of hope’
  • Scottish Water urged to get a grip as bills and bonuses rise

Lib Dems urge Labour MPs to back closer trade with EU which could raise £25 billion a year and avoid welfare cuts

The Liberal Democrats have sent a letter to Labour MPs urging them to back closer trade ties with the EU to boost the public finances and avoid “savage” cuts to support for vulnerable families and pensioners.

It comes as House of Commons Library analysis, commissioned by the party, has estimated that if GDP was 2.2% higher, that could mean roughly £25 billion in extra tax revenues a year. The 2.2% figure is from independent analysis by Frontier Economics commissioned by Best for Britain and is for GDP in the long-run based on a new trade deal with the EU that secured deep alignment on goods and services.

This would easily be enough for the Government to U-turn on its cuts to winter fuel payments (£1.5 billion) and disability benefits (£5 billion), along with future cuts to public spending expected to be announced by the Chancellor in the Spending Review next month.

In the letter sent to Labour MPs, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Calum Miller will say his party would be willing to work constructively on securing a new trade deal with Europe, providing the boost to public finances needed to reverse cuts to disability benefits and the winter fuel payment. The Liberal Democrats’ 72-strong group of MPs is the largest third party in 100 years. Over 100 Labour MPs have reportedly signed a letter calling on the Government to back down from the welfare cuts.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a new trade deal with the EU including a new UK-EU customs union, which would significantly reduce red tape for British businesses exporting to the continent. Previous independent analysis has found that close alignment with the EU on goods and services could boost GDP by 2.2%. The House of Commons Library has estimated that if GDP was 2.2% higher, this could boost annual tax revenues by roughly £25 billion.

Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Calum Miller MP said:

A far more ambitious trade deal with Europe, including a new UK-EU customs union, would be the single biggest thing ministers could do to boost growth and fix the public finances.

The Liberal Democrats stand ready to work constructively with Labour MPs to boost trade with Europe and avoid savage cuts for vulnerable families and pensioners.

The local elections showed the Government is facing a massive backlash for failing to deliver the change the country was promised. Ministers now face a stark choice: be bold enough to change course or continue with policies that are harming people and our economy.

Record low number of frontline NHS staff receive flu jabs this winter as some areas see less than one in 10 vaccinated

A record low of 37% of frontline health service staff took up flu jabs this winter, with some areas seeing less than one in 10 receive the vaccine. This came as hospitals battled a surge in those admitted due to the disease, House of Commons Library research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

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Mark Valladares

15 May 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 15th May 2025 - 10:55 pm
  • Lib Dems say shocking hospital wait stats should “shake us to our core”
  • GDP: Govt must now use UK-EU summit to boost growth
  • Sneaky Kemi needs to “take head out of the sand” on EU
  • Lib Dems move to quash sell-out law allowing foreign stakes in UK newspapers
  • Cole-Hamilton to First Minister: SNP have failed social care and NHS

Lib Dems say shocking hospital wait stats should “shake us to our core”

Responding to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimating that there were more than 16,600 deaths of patients linked to long waits in A&E for hospital beds last year, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:

These figures should shake us to our core. People are dying needlessly in corridors and glorified cupboards as staff are stretched to breaking point, working in conditions that resembling the stuff on nightmares.

This is where we must draw a line in the sand. The Conservatives led us to this point – an NHS on its knees and countless preventable deaths – but it is up to this Government to make sure that this never happens again.

The Health Secretary must step up, free up much-needed hospital beds by overhauling social care as he has pledged to do and back our campaign to end corridor care by the end of this Parliament. That is what the public deserves.

GDP: Govt must now use UK-EU summit to boost growth

Responding to GDP growth of 0.2% for March and 0.7% over Q1 of 2025, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

This is positive news for the economy but this is no time for complacency.

These figures are from before the Chancellor’s jobs tax came into force and Trump’s trade war began.

The government needs to use the UK-EU summit on Monday to boost businesses and cut red tape, including by immediately starting talks on a bespoke customs union.

Sneaky Kemi needs to “take head out of the sand” on EU

Following Kemi Badenoch’s speech to the International Democracy Union, James MacCleary MP, Liberal Democrat Europe Spokesperson, said:

Kemi sneaking off to Brussels to talk down Britain: I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. It’s a well-rehearsed act.

She’s wrong on Europe: standing stronger together with our EU allies makes us stronger at home, not weaker.

It’s time for Badenoch to take her head out of the sand and wake up to the huge potential for growth that a proper deal with the EU could unlock.

Lib Dems move to quash sell-out law allowing foreign stakes in UK newspapers

Following the revelation that the Labour Government will legislate to allow foreign states to own up to 15% of British newspapers, the Liberal Democrats will move to dismantle the new rules via a Fatal Motion – a rare parliamentary device that would permanently halt the law’s progression.

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Mark Valladares

14 May 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 14th May 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • PAC medical negligence report: staggering sums lay bare a health service that is “not functioning”
  • Lib Dems call for a critical incident to be declared after unsafe maternity unit in Somerset forced to closed
  • Cole-Hamilton: Social care being doubly failed by Labour and SNP
  • Cole-Hamilton: Both governments neglecting social care

PAC medical negligence report: staggering sums lay bare a health service that is “not functioning”

Responding to the Public Accounts Committee report, which condemned the ‘astronomical’ fees paid to medical negligence lawyers, Liberal Democrat Hospitals and Primary Care spokesperson Jess Brown-Fuller MP said:

These sums are absolutely staggering and symptomatic of a health service that simply is not functioning, leading to frankly dangerous situations.

The Conservative Party’s shameful neglect brought us to this point, but the Labour government’s embrace of dither and delay on social care, maternity reforms and rebuilding our hospitals is prolonging the misery.

To turn this situation around, we need to see ministers move at speed by wrapping up their social care review by the end of the year, implementing the Ockenden report in full and rescuing our crumbling hospitals. To fail on this front condemns more patients to these horrific outcomes.

Lib Dems call for a critical incident to be declared after unsafe maternity unit in Somerset forced to closed

Maternity services in Yeovil are to close for at least six months after a warning from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a situation that has prompted local Liberal Democrat MP Adam Dance to call for a critical incident to be declared warning that it will leave families in “turmoil”.

The Somerset NHS foundation trust has announced that it will be closing the Yeovil Maternity Unit for six months, including the Special Care Baby Unit. The unit serves more than 1,200 births a year.

These women will instead be sent to Taunton, a maternity unit over 25 miles away and already over capacity in Musgrove Park Hospital, one of the hospitals facing delays following the Government pushing back many projects in the New Hospitals Programme.

The step was taken after the CQC served a warning that maternity services were “failing to meet the regulations related to staffing and governance systems”. Yeovil MP Adam Dance asked a question about the closure at Prime Minister’s Questions today in which Keir Starmer committed to securing a meeting for the local MP with a relevant minister to discuss the issue.

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Mark Valladares

13 May 2025 – today’s press releases (Scottish edition)

By Mark Valladares | Tue 13th May 2025 - 11:15 pm
  • McArthur makes his final pitch to MSPs to support assisted dying bill
  • SNP failures all over decline in housebuilding and supply
  • Local campaigner Neil Alexander selected to take on Emma Roddick in key Lib Dem target seat
  • Greene demands statement on Glen Rosa news
  • McArthur welcomes victory for Assisted Dying bill at stage one

McArthur makes his final pitch to MSPs to support assisted dying bill

Speaking ahead of the vote on his Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, Liam McArthur MSP said:

This is an issue on which an overwhelming majority of people of Scotland believe a change in the law is required. Public polling is consistent across age range, political affiliation, disability status, geographic area and religious belief: Scots want to see dying people in this country given more choice at the end of life.

Drawing on international evidence, my bill would ensure people who meet the strict eligibility criteria are able to exercise that choice in a way that is robustly safeguarded.

Indeed, my bill would put in place safeguards that don’t currently exist, a situation that leaves many terminally ill people more vulnerable and more likely to take matters into their own hands. This shows that not taking action has serious consequences too, with more deaths that are painful and undignified, despite the best efforts of palliative care, and more traumatised families left behind.

Scotland cannot put off this conversation. And parliament cannot continue to leave this issue in the ‘too difficult’ box. It must, at the very least, allow time for amendments to be considered to see if a bill can be agreed that commands majority support and public confidence.

To my MSP colleagues, I say, if you have not yet made up your mind, my door is always open but most importantly I would urge you to listen to the voices of terminally ill Scots desperate for more choice, control
and dignity.

This bill has been a long time coming but it does now offer the chance to provide that compassionate choice for the small number of terminally ill Scots who need it.

SNP failures all over decline in housebuilding and supply

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today said that SNP decisions have made the housing crisis significantly worse after statistics confirmed dramatic falls in new housing supply and new build completions in the year to March 2024, despite an increase in the number of people seeking housing.

Official figures published today show that:

  • Between 2022/23 and 2023/24, new housing supply decreased by 16.4%, or 3,984 homes.
  • In the same period, new build completions decreased by 16.1%, a drop of 3,835 homes.
  • As of 31st March 2024, 177,264 applications were recorded on 26 local authority or common housing register housing lists. This represents 2,172 more households compared with March 2023.
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Mark Valladares

10-11 May 2025 – the weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 12th May 2025 - 11:50 pm
  • Davey creates ‘Reform Watch’ team to keep Trumpian councils honest
  • Lib Dems call on Government to ‘step up’ and pay care workers properly
  • Cole-Hamilton comments on Edinburgh cyberattack

Davey creates ‘Reform Watch’ team to keep Trumpian councils honest

Ed Davey has established a new national “Reform Watch’ scrutiny board, bringing together local Liberal Democrat leaders in areas where Reform has taken control to take a coordinated approach to opposition and holding them to account.

The Liberal Democrats came second to Reform at last week’s local elections, winning more councillors than both Labour and the Conservatives for the first time ever.

The Board will be chaired …

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Mark Valladares

8 May 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Fri 9th May 2025 - 12:10 am
  • US and UK trade deal: Parliament must be given a vote
  • Interest rates: Trump tariffs, spiralling bills and jobs tax still ‘hammering’ millions of households
  • UK-US deal: would show “complete disrespect” to public if waved through with no vote
  • Greene responds to direct award of ferries to CalMac
  • Cole-Hamilton marks VE Day
  • McArthur responds to FM’s comments on assisted dying

US and UK trade deal: Parliament must be given a vote

Commenting on reports that a US/UK trade deal will be announced later today, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Parliament must be given a vote on this US trade deal so it can be properly scrutinised.

A good trade deal with the US could bring huge benefits, but Liberal Democrats are deeply concerned that it may include measures that threaten our NHS, undermine our farmers or give tax cuts to US tech billionaires.

If the government is confident the agreement it has negotiated with Trump is in Britain’s national interest, it should not be afraid to bring it before MPs.

Interest rates: Trump tariffs, spiralling bills and jobs tax still ‘hammering’ millions of households

Responding to the Bank of England cutting interest rates to 4.25%, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Today’s rate cut is of course welcome news, but it cannot distract from the fact that millions of households are still being hammered by Trump’s tariffs, spiralling bills and a growth-crushing jobs tax that is already eating into pay packets.

To break the cycle of stagnation left by the Conservatives, the government must scrap its jobs tax, fix the broken business rates system and stand up to Trump’s tariffs.

We urge the government to build an economic coalition of the willing with European and Commonwealth allies and set its sights higher by pursuing a bespoke UK-EU customs union. This is the way to reboot our economy, rebuild public services and protect family finances.

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Mark Valladares

7 May 2025 – today’s press releases (part 2)

By Mark Valladares | Wed 7th May 2025 - 11:55 pm
  • Cole-Hamilton: Only the Lib Dems can get Scotland back to its best
  • Scot Lib Dems comment on SNP candidate list
  • Legal Experts express support for Assisted dying bill
  • Scot Lib Dems respond to Swinney independence comments
  • Labour steal Deputy Mayor appointment as part of a “grubby deal” for control of Oldham Council

Cole-Hamilton: Only the Lib Dems can get Scotland back to its best

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said that only his party can deliver a fairer vision for Scotland and get our communities back on track, as he marked one year to go until the Scottish Parliament election.

Mr Cole-Hamilton is visiting a local business in Edinburgh Northern today with Sanne Dijkstra-Downie, the party’s candidate for the constituency. Edinburgh Northern is a key target seat for the party at next year’s election. At the 2022 local elections, Scottish Liberal Democrats won the area covered by the new seat by 29.3% to the SNP’s 25.0%.

The party is highlighting their priorities for the next election. This includes faster access to local healthcare like GPs and dentists, recruiting more teachers to put Scotland at the forefront of key industries like renewables and precision medicine and speeding up the delivery of important infrastructure, particularly the dualling of the A9 and A96.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

The SNP have been in charge for eighteen years and our health service, economy and education are all on their knees. They have let Scotland down.

When people look around at some of the alternatives, they feel frustrated. Labour were elected promising change, but they have clobbered small businesses and care providers with a cruel jobs tax. The Conservatives are lurching to extremes and abandoning the centre ground.

Only the Scottish Liberal Democrats have a vision for getting Scotland back to its best.

We want a Scotland where people get the local healthcare they need, when they need it. We want to give our children a world-class education and a thriving economy where the government looks after your money and works with its neighbours. We want a Scotland where our rural communities are listened to, not talked down to.

If Scots back us, we can defeat the SNP’s Kate Forbes in the highlands, win constituency seats in areas like Edinburgh and East Dunbartonshire and elect more Liberal Democrat candidates on the regional lists in every corner of Scotland who will be strong local champions delivering on the issues that matter most.

Scot Lib Dems comment on SNP candidate list

Commenting on the SNP releasing their candidate list, Christine Jardine MP said:

If only the SNP government were always as good at recycling as they are with their candidate list. We’d have no difficulty hitting our climate change targets.

Stephen Flynn has obviously decided that he’s bored of staring at the back of Ed Davey’s head each week and decided to try his hand in the Scottish Parliament. Given some of the language his supporters have been throwing around, I’m not sure that is a prospect his female colleagues will relish.

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Caron Lindsay

Jamie Greene on joining the Lib Dems

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 10th April 2025 - 8:09 am

Unfortunately, I had to miss Friday at Scottish Conference for family reasons.

As I arrived in Inverness in the afternoon, my phone started going wild and I realised that Jamie Greene MSP had joined us. His arrival brings our MSPs to five and means that we can now be an official group in the Parliament. This will give us more committee places and speaking time. Willie Rennie will be joining the Corporate Body as our official business manager.

Watch that moment here. Alex Cole-Hamilton introduced him and clearly enjoyed himself doing so.

The most exciting day at Conference in ages and I’m not there. I was very happy to have Jamie in the party, but had major FOMO.

However, I did get to meet him at the dinner that evening. Alistair Carmichael took him round all the tables, telling him that I was  “mad, bad and dangerous to know.” Jamie said he was already aware of Lib Dem Voice and said he would write for us.

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Alex Cole-Hamilton’s speech from Scottish Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 6th April 2025 - 8:56 am

I’m just about to head down the road home from  a very buoyant and confident Scottish Conference in the beautiful Highland capital of Inverness. I shall have more reflections later, but first here is Alex Cole-Hamilton’s leader’s speech.

Here’s the livestream which picks up some interesting snippets of conversation in the build up. The first phases also include the fundraiser from our new chief executive Paul Trollope and introduction from Edinburgh Northern PPC Sanne Djikstra-Downie.

The full text is below.

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Mark Valladares

19 March 2025 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 20th March 2025 - 7:30 am
  • US-Russia call: Putin is “stringing Trump along”
  • NICs vote: Labour MPs vote for “health tax” on GPs, pharmacies and care homes
  • Conservative local election launch: “buck stops” with Badenoch
  • “Time for a fair deal for farmers” – Carmichael to introduce Food Supply Chain Fairness Bill
  • Scottish Government admits it failed to conduct safeguarding review
  • Minister visited Skye House just months before cruelty allegations surfaced
  • Severn Estuary Commission Report – Get on with Building the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon
  • Rennie responds to damning evidence session on funding crisis at Dundee University

US-Russia call: Putin is “stringing Trump along”

Responding to Putin’s phone call with Trump, Calum Miller MP, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, said:

Donald Trump’s fawning call with Putin couldn’t be more different to his and JD Vance’s shameful bullying of Zelensky in the Oval Office.

It’s clear Trump is being played by Putin – stringing him along and currying favour even as his savage war machine continues to push deeper into Ukraine.

Now is the time for the UK and our allies in Europe and the Commonwealth to redouble our efforts to support Ukraine’s defence and achieve a lasting peace.

NICs vote: Labour MPs vote for “health tax” on GPs, pharmacies and care homes

Responding to the Government voting to reject a Liberal Democrat amendment which would have exempted health and care providers from the national insurance rise, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Labour MPs today have voted for a health tax on GPs, dentists, pharmacies, hospices and care homes, and it is patients who will pay the price.

The Liberal Democrats are proud we have led the fight to exempt health and care providers from this misguided tax hike, and we will not give up now.

On April 6th worried social care providers and GP surgeries are going to be hit with bills they simply cannot afford. Rachel Reeves must finally see sense, U-turn on this disastrous policy and exempt health and care providers from this damaging jobs tax.

Conservative local election launch: “buck stops” with Badenoch

Commenting on the Conservatives’ local election launch tomorrow (20th March) a Liberal Democrat spokesperson said:

The buck stops with bungling Badenoch. If she fails to deliver in the local elections, the writing will truly be on the wall for her and for the Conservative Party.

Whilst they compete with Reform and tilt ever further to the right, the Liberal Democrats are focused on delivering for residents on issues including the cost of living, sewage in our rivers and the emergency in our NHS and care.

We’re hearing on the doorsteps that people haven’t forgiven the Conservatives for all the damage they’ve done. If Kemi speaks to voters tomorrow, she will doubtless hear the same. Voters have a clear choice in May, and across the country, including in Buckinghamshire, they are turning to the Liberal Democrats as community champions who will stand up for them.

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Mark Valladares

18 March 2025 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 19th March 2025 - 11:30 pm
  • Badenoch speech: Scrapping net zero would ‘undermine national energy security’
  • Helen Maguire: Not enough has been done to address abuse against women in our Armed Forces
  • Children’s Bill: Labour vote against free school meals “deeply disappointing”
  • Scotland’s disease burden forecast to increase by more than half

Badenoch speech: Scrapping net zero would ‘undermine national energy security’

Responding to Kemi Badenoch’s speech today claiming that Net Zero by 2050 is ‘impossible’, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Daisy Cooper said:

Kemi Badenoch is taking a leaf straight out of Nigel Farage’s playbook while turning her back on the millions of former Conservative voters who care about protecting our environment.

Scrapping net zero and renewable energy targets will simply increase our reliance on foreign fossil fuels, lining the pockets of the likes of Vladimir Putin and his cronies.

Whether it’s abandoning plans for clean energy, slashing maternity pay or undermining the UK’s national energy security, bungling Badenoch’s plans would leave our country worse off.

Helen Maguire: Not enough has been done to address abuse against women in our Armed Forces

Commenting on the Ministry of Defence’s announcement of a new Task Force to tackle violence against women in the military, Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson and Iraq Veteran, Helen Maguire MP, said:

We welcome today’s announcement of a Task Force targeting violence against women and girls in the military. It’s shameful, though, that not enough has been done to address what appears to be widespread abuse in our Armed Forces.

It is shameful how previous policies have continued to fail these brave women. There have been abject failures in leadership in our Armed Forces and from government over many years on this.

The Liberal Democrats have argued consistently that much more must be done to safeguard women in the military. Labour needs to move urgently to fully implement the remaining recommendations in the 2021 Atherton Report. This is the least we owe to the women serving courageously across our services.

Children’s Bill: Labour vote against free school meals “deeply disappointing”

Responding to Labour voting against a Liberal Democrat amendment to automatically enrol eligible children for free school meals, Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said:

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Mark Valladares

18 March 2025 – the overnight press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 18th March 2025 - 7:30 am
  • Lib Dems force crunch vote on free school meals as 200,000 children miss out
  • Pharmacies: Government has left a “question mark” over support and now consequences “painfully apparent”
  • 51,100 violent incidents directed at NHS staff since 2019
  • New Social Attitudes Survey shows overwhelming support for assisted dying

Lib Dems force crunch vote on free school meals as 200,000 children miss out

New Liberal Democrat analysis estimates that over 230,000 children eligible for free school meals are not receiving the food they’re entitled to, though the true figure could be much higher – as the party prepares to push a key vote in Parliament to bring free school meals to over a million children.

New analysis by the Liberal Democrats has suggested that at least 230,000 children eligible for school meals may not be enrolled to receive the benefit. Combined with the Child Poverty Action Group’s estimate that 900,000 children in poverty are not eligible for free school meals, this figure would bring the number of total vulnerable children in England not receiving free lunches to over 1 million.

On Tuesday, Liberal Democrats will force MPs to vote on auto-enrolling eligible children for free school meals. They will also table a vote on raising the income threshold for free school meal eligibility to £20,000.

The number of eligible children not claiming meals could be far higher than the 230,000 estimated figure. Shockingly, the last Government analysis of the issue took place in 2013. That study suggested 89% of those entitled to free lunches were claiming them, leaving 1 in 10 eligible children missing out. If those numbers hold true today, that would mean over 230,000 young people are going without the meals to which they’re entitled – with the Lib Dems slamming the Government for “flying blind” on this crucial issue.

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Mark Valladares

15-16 March 2025 – the weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Sun 16th March 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • Davey on PM’s virtual summit: only way to achieve peace is to strengthen Ukraine’s hand by seizing frozen Russian assets
  • NHS England: Same urgency must now be shown for social care
  • SNP RAAC response non-existent compared to England
  • Rennie responds to Gilruth Dundee University comments

Davey on PM’s virtual summit: only way to achieve peace is to strengthen Ukraine’s hand by seizing frozen Russian assets

Responding to the Prime Minister’s virtual meeting with world leaders to discuss Ukraine, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Putin could end this war today if he wanted peace, but it’s clear he’s only interested in destroying Ukraine’s sovereignty and turning it into a vassal state of Russia.

The only way to achieve a just and lasting peace is to strengthen Ukraine. We must redouble our efforts to support their defence in the face of Putin’s barbarism. If Ukraine loses, all of Europe will be less secure.

The PM must now commit to seizing the frozen Russian assets in the UK, and forge an agreement to do the same across Europe, to help strengthen Ukraine’s hand and ensure we can achieve real peace.

NHS England: Same urgency must now be shown for social care

Responding to the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, speaking this morning on scrapping NHS England, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care Spokesperson, Helen Morgan said:

The Health Secretary is right that the NHS is broken and in need of major reform after years of Conservative failure. The focus must now be on ensuring that scrapping NHS England, and any further cuts, do not have negative impacts on the quality of care for patients.

The Government must also take the same sense of urgency shown here to social care, and complete their review by the end of the year rather than continuing to kick the can down the road.

SNP RAAC response non-existent compared to England

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has criticised the SNP for doing nothing to support health boards in dealing with RAAC, after research by his party found that the dangerous building material has been removed in scores of NHS buildings across England.

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Mark Valladares

14 March 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Fri 14th March 2025 - 11:15 pm
  • GDP: Reeves’s plan for growth leaves “economy on life support”
  • Scottish Government refusing to say whether Gupta firms in breach of legal agreements
  • Adam Harley selected for Scot Lib Dem target seat of Strathkelvin & Bearsden
  • McArthur welcomes watershed moment in assisted dying debate as GPs vote to drop opposition
  • Jardine comments on SNP MPs approved for 2026 candidacy
  • Rennie responds to Glen Sannox pulled from service

GDP: Reeves’s plan for growth leaves “economy on life support”

Responding to GDP shrinking by 0.1% in January, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

The Chancellor’s wretched Budget has left our economy on life support so the Spring Statement must deliver a much needed shot in the arm.

Just as the Chancellor’s jobs tax is set to hammer small businesses and plunge high streets into despair, the Government’s refusal to negotiate a bespoke UK-EU Customs Union to unleash economic growth is baffling.

At the Statement, the Chancellor must admit that her Budget has failed to reverse the years of Conservative economic vandalism and put forward a new plan that unleashes the growth potential of small businesses up and down the land.

Scottish Government refusing to say whether Gupta firms in breach of legal agreements

Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Willie Rennie has today piled pressure on the Scottish Government after a minister repeatedly refused to say whether recipients of millions of pounds of taxpayer-backed guarantees who have repeatedly failed to file accounts were in breach of their deals with the government.

It was revealed in October that the CEO of Liberty House Group, Sanjeev Gupta is currently facing prosecution over his alleged failure to file accounts for more than 70 companies. This follows years of media reporting that accounts for both the Dalzell steelworks – acquired by Mr Gupta from Tata Steel in a controversial back-to-back deal facilitated by the Scottish Government – and for the Lochaber aluminium plant – also owned by Mr Gupta and owing £7m in loans to Scottish taxpayers – have gone unfiled.

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