Well, that was all quite a shambles wasn’t it?
A political own goal if ever I’ve seen one. No, on this occasion I’m not speaking of Labour on welfare, the Tories on, well, pretty much everything, or Reform UK on its failing candidate vetting. I’m speaking of our leader Ed Davey’s sacking of Christine Jardine after she voted in line with our party’s values on a welfare amendment last week and, in doing so, nominally broke the party Whip which was (inexplicably) to abstain.
As a Lib Dem MP source said to me (in news I broke on my Substack the morning after) “this has been handled dreadfully.” The same MP answered in the affirmative when I asked them if there was significant disquiet about the issue in the Lib Dem Commons caucus. That matches cool anger among the party base; with Lib Dem Women writing to the Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain with their concerns and more than one hundred party members signing an open letter in less than twenty-four hours calling not only for Christine Jardine to be re-appointed as our Scotland and Women and Equalities Spokesperson but also for her to be given a formal apology over the handling of the matter. I’m proud to be one of the signatories of that letter.
Christine Jardine says she only learnt of her demotion from the media, that is surely disgraceful. The fact she’d been warned this might happen is not the same as being informed that it had. Our Whips/leadership need to do better.
And, on a further point, how can Ed Davey go from saying at a recent conference that Christine was “the best equalities spokesperson the party’s ever had” to sacking her from the role for voting in line with our party’s values?! It makes no sense whatsoever.
I don’t mean this negatively in regards to her replacements (which by the way were not given a formal announcement but just had their positions changed on the party website), that being Susan Murray as the new Scotland Spokesperson and Lisa Smart on Women and Equalities, but Christine Jardine should be restored to her prior roles without delay. And the leadership should ask themselves some very serious questions about how this whole matter has been handled and ensure nothing like it happens again!
We need to be loud in speaking up for civil liberties!
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