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The Voice

Two important Lib Dem leadership debates

By The Voice | Tue 25th June 2019 - 11:18 pm

Ballot papers in the leadership election will land in people’s letterboxes and inboxes from 1st July.

The 105,000 Lib Dem members will have two opportunities before then to see the two candidates, Ed Davey and Jo Swinson, go head to head on live tv. The first is on Victoria Derbyshire at 10 am on Thursday 27th July. The second is on Adam Boulton’s All out Politics on Sky at 9am on Monday 1st July.

We’ll catch up with Ed and Jo properly tomorrow but today has seen the first direct conflict of the leadership campaign.

In an article in the Times (£) this morning, Ed would have wanted the discussion to be around his plan to stop Brexit. People actually picked up on a quite violent turn of phrase:

So I hereby float the idea of a Remain alliance to decapitate that blond head in Uxbridge and South Ruislip if Johnson calls a snap election to deliver Brexit.

Quite obviously not meant literally, but still more violent than many people felt comfortable with.

Jo was uncomfortable with the way Ed expressed the view of Boris being a total disaster:

The language we use is important. We have to be able to have robust debate in our politics without resorting to graphic, violent imagery. We have to rediscover the ability to disagree well with each other.

This is not language I would use, and in the current climate I don’t think we should speak in those terms.

Boris will be a disaster for this country, but we can make that case without resorting to violent language.

Later in the day, Ed recognised that a less violent metaphor would have been more appropriate:

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 24 June 2019

By The Voice | Mon 24th June 2019 - 10:00 pm

Ed started the week by having a good go at Boris on Politics LIve

And then on to the New Statesman hustings tonight.

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The Voice

Ed’s weekend – 21-23 June 2019

By The Voice | Sun 23rd June 2019 - 9:00 pm

We last left Ed about to go on Question Time on Thursday night.  You can, and should, watch the whole thing here. He answered very effectively questions about Boris (which sparked his lengthy and brilliant Twitter rant of many of the worst things Boris has done), Brexit and knife crime and the importance of winning the arguments on vaccinating children.

On Friday, it was time for his Politics Home interview:

He talked about his idea for a government of national unity:

Davey is clear he would like to be Prime Minister. However, in the current Brexit deadlock, he is also advocating a Government of National Unity.

“I think there are just about enough MPs from a plethora of parties who are so alarmed at a no deal prospect, who are so alarmed at the way our politics has been polluted by these hard-right Brexiteers, that they will come together. It will not be easy, but I could see a backbench Labour MP, I wouldn’t name them but you can guess who they might be, being given support from enough people from enough parties that we could send a message to the Palace that if they send for that member of Parliament they will be able to command a majority of the House of Commons.”

He says that this “Government of National Unity” would not be a coalition. “It would be a temporary phenomenon in order to stop no-deal. In order pass the paving legislation for a people’s vote and then be a caretaker government to oversee the process until that vote happened.”

He talks about the Lib Dems being the party of business:

“I’m pro-competition. I’m pro-entrepreneur. I’m pro-free trade. It is in our liberal economic agenda, but we do not think markets are there to tell us what to do, we’re there, through democratic means, to shape those markets.”

Davey says there are lots of examples of this in action, but “the one I’m focussing on is climate change”. “It is absolutely outrageous that people in our country are allowed to not take account of climate change risks in their decisions. We are facing a climate emergency.”

The former Environment Secretary wants to make sure “all these institutions and corporates have to disclose both their investments in fossil fuels”.

He wrote a blistering article in the Independent about how the Tories have learned nothing from their Windrush Scandal failure:
A year on from the first Windrush Day, the hostile environment is as hostile as ever.

These policies, which turn teachers, doctors, police officers and bank clerks into border guards, are exactly the policies that led members of the Windrush generation to be deprived their rights, detained and even deported. The Windrush scandal should have been the end of them. And yet, for all the Conservatives’ apologising and hand-wringing, they remain in force

Most outrageous is the Conservatives’ refusal to scrap their “right to rent” law. This requires landlords to check the immigration status of tenants or prospective tenants, with the threat of a criminal conviction if they rent to someone they shouldn’t.

When the Conservatives first tried to introduce this law in 2014, the Liberal Democrats in government blocked it. We argued that making landlords criminally responsible for immigration enforcement would lead to racial discrimination.

He highlighted the story of the man who had to sleep in a shed because he had no way of proving he had the right to stay here.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants has shown clearly, through a “mystery shopper” exercise, that the Liberal Democrats’ fears were well-founded. On the basis of that and other supporting evidence, the High Court ruled in March that the Conservatives’ “right to rent” policy breaches fundamental human rights because it essentially forces private landlords to discriminate against prospective tenants who are Bame or who don’t have a British passport.

What would we do about it?

That’s why the Liberal Democrats would take responsibility for immigration away from the Home Office altogether.

The Departments for Business, Education and International Development should make policy on work permits, student visas and asylum respectively. And we would set up a new, arms-length, non-political agency to take over the actual processing of visa and asylum applications, with the training and resources to process applications quickly, decide cases fairly, and get them right the first time.

He also wrote for the Huffington Post about why we need a Boris-busting Remain Alliance:

Anyone who hopes Johnson won’t commit a Brexit calamity is basing that on his dishonesty. And he is indeed capable of yanking up the handbrake on the Brexit bus and committing a massive, shameless u-turn. But we cannot rely on him for that or indeed anything else.

Which is why a Remain Alliance is needed in Parliament, anchored around the Liberal Democrats – the only major national party to call for a People’s Vote from the get go and now with the democratic legitimacy of having beaten every other party in Parliament in last month’s European elections.

This Remain Alliance must first stop a no-deal Brexit. From a Humble Address to Her Majesty to passing a new law requiring a vote of MPs before the UK could leave the EU, we must examine every option to stop Boris. And we must be ready to use Parliament’s ultimate weapon – a vote of no confidence in a Johnson government.

There were hustings this weekend in Wales – good coincidence on the day that we find out that there’s going to be a by-election in a seat that we used to hold following the recall of the MP who was convicted of submitting a fraudulent invoice.

 

And he cleaned the beach in Bude ahead of the Cornwall hustings:

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 20 June 2019

By The Voice | Thu 20th June 2019 - 10:00 pm

Ed is on Question Time tonight at 10:35 pm along with the ultra Brexity Weatherspoons owner Tim Martin.More on that tomorrow.

Earlier, he had a right go at the Home Office for tweeting about Pride when it treats LGBT+ people so disgracefully.

And a message for Clean Air Day..

And I don’t know about you, but I get the feeling that he’s not a fan of Boris. This is a very long thread but you really should read the whole thing.

Both candidates had the chance to have an email sent out by Lib Dem HQ. Here’s Ed’s:

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 19 June 2019

By The Voice | Wed 19th June 2019 - 9:00 pm

It’s Wednesday, it’s eve of poll, and there’s a by-election in Merton

Earlier, Ed and Jo were on the Jeremy Vine Show talking about the coalition.  He said he was proud of our record in the coalition, that we put country before party and did so many good things, quadrupling nuclear power, raising the state pension and taking many people out of income tax. He highlighted Norman Lamb’s work on mental health.

He talked about the compromises we had to make go give the country stable government. He contrasted with this “appalling” government. Apart from Brexit, he said that austerity has got worse under the Tories.

He highlighted recent gains to say that Lib Dems are on the up.

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 18 June 2019

By The Voice | Tue 18th June 2019 - 11:00 pm

It’s been a very busy day for Ed Davey too.

From tackling transphobia on Mumsnet

And answering the Radical Association’s questions:

Liberal Democrats believe the market is our servant not our master. We want a mixed economy, and a diverse set of ownership models. We want to make sure markets don’t mistreat workers or the planet. Decarbonising capitalism is a profoundly radical approach to reforming the City, banks, stock exchanges, pension funds and debt markets – and is entirely in line with an approach of “responsible capitalism” promoted by Vince Cable, with new stronger regulations for better Environmental, Social and Governance policies for business. The reforms I introduced as Energy and Climate Change Secretary to reform the electricity market and to promote energy efficiency showed what can be achieved, by smart government intervention – as we saw renewable energy boom and I brought in minimum energy efficiency regulations for the rented sector.

I certainly don’t see the traditional shareholder corporate model as the only one. When I was a junior minister in BIS I worked closely with Co-op UK to push collective purchasing by consumers and then introduced this to the energy market through collective switching. I insisted that there should be a significant employee ownership of Royal Mail and am only sorry that after I left BIS the Tories scaled back the ambitious scale of employee ownership which we had. I introduced legislation which will allow a future government to mutualise the Post Office. At DECC I pushed for and published the UK’s first ever community energy strategy for renewables to provide a challenge to incumbent energy operators and after leaving government chaired a community energy company, helping many communities get into solar and even wind power. So I am passionately committed to delivering much wider forms of ownership than the traditional forms of corporate ownership.

And on rebuilding the party:

The inspiring thing is how a relatively small number of people can make a massive impact. Whether that was in past Lynne Featherstone in Hornsey and Wood Green to more recently Hannah Kitching in Barnsley and Adam Carter in Rotherham, big breakthroughs can be made. Often stronger nearby parties have helped in providing advice and support such as the Sheffield party in Rotherham but we can perhaps make this rather more structured.

And we also need to recognise that strong national messages appealing to people who share our values can have a massive impact. Who would have thought that in the European elections that we we would win boroughs such as Wandsworth and Westminster where we have no Councillors currently? As Leader my role will be to ensure that we put those supportive structures in place and that we have those clear national messages.

To be honest, there’s also the issue of raising money for the party. We have failed to hit fundraising targets in recent years – so we need to do much better. I believe I can go to businesses and individuals interested in our European ideas and our decarbonisation ideas, and get them to back us – and if we can raise significant extra funding, we can support less well-off areas, and support the rebuilding of the party in different parts of the country.

And talking to Liberal Reform:

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The Voice

WATCH: The online leadership hustings

By The Voice | Mon 17th June 2019 - 11:00 pm

You’ve seen a few comments on Ed’s Day and Jo’s Day. Now see the whole online hustings which took place tonight.

500 questions were submitted in advance of the event, chaired by party President Sal Brinton. It was the first of its type for a UK political party.

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – June 2019

By The Voice | Mon 17th June 2019 - 9:00 pm

Today was mostly about the online hustings – as Sal Brinton said, the first to be held online by a political party in the UK to choose its leader.

Here are some of his highlights:

 

Earlier, he had visited a project in his constituency as part of Learning Disabilities Week:

And he had a wide-ranging interview with the New Statesman:

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The Voice

Ed’s weekend – 16 June 2019

By The Voice | Sun 16th June 2019 - 11:07 pm

For Ed, the Nottingham hustings were a return to the place of his birth.

He spoke to the local newspaper.

I’ve always been very fond of Nottingham and I’m actually a Notts County supporter. It’s been a very difficult year for us but hopefully we’ll bounce back.”

He faced a challenging time aged 12 when his mother developed secondary bone cancer, and he became her carer for the next three years, before her death.

He was then brought up by his grandparents.

He added: “I was extremely fortunate to earn a scholarship to study at the Nottingham High School for 10 years, before I moved on to university.”

There’s a barrier between him and Ken Clarke, though:

“I am an admirer of Ken Clarke as a Conservative who has stood by his beliefs with Europe. Only problem is, he’s a Forest fan.”

Ed remembered Jo Cox on the third anniversary of her murder:

And he’s not impressed that some funders of the Johnson and Hunt campaigns are climate change deniers.

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Caron Lindsay

A good reason to check your emails

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 16th June 2019 - 12:55 pm

If you are a party member and you don’t know about the leadership hustings taking place between Ed Davey and Jo Swinson tomorrow night, you might want to check your emails as you will have an invitation to them.

You will need to RSVP in order to be sent the link to the proceedings.

It’s taking place tomorrow night at 7pm. If you can’t make it then, it will be uploaded to the party website after the event.g

Here’s the two in action at the London hustings to whet your appetite:

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 13 and 14 June 2019

By The Voice | Sat 15th June 2019 - 9:33 pm

So, Mr Umunna’s arrival, welcome though it was, kind of put paid to our scheduling plans. So we’ll be catching up with the leadership campaign over the next two nights.

Thursday seems such a long time ago now.

It started for Ed with local success:

Before he expressed that he was, shall we say, less than impressed with  the man who looks like he is going to be our Prime Minister.

On Friday, he remembered those who lost their lives in Grenfell Tower:

And then up north to the hustings in Manchester

And then he wrote for the New Statesman (£) reprising a catchphrase from Blair, Tough on Brexit, tough on the causes of Brexit.

The Liberal Democrats actually have myriad policies to tackle regional, racial, class and generational inequality. The pupil premium, free school dinners and the national apprenticeship scheme were landmark Lib Dem achievements that have helped profoundly. But we need fresh ways of fighting structural inequality, and then proclaim them.

That must mean (no ifs, no buts) an end to austerity now.

It should be no surprise that so many voted Leave – successive governments, of all persuasions, have often felt powerless in the face of vast global and historic forces. This has left an underclass further cut adrift from the rest of society than at any point since the Rowntree report more than a century ago inspired the New Liberalism of Asquith and Lloyd George to found the Welfare State. Progressive politics needs a re-boot every bit as radical today to give a stake in society to everyone who lives in it. If that were not challenge enough, we must tackle the calamity of climate change and the racist nationalism of Farage and Johnson that fires hate.

And he talked to the New European about putting a stop to some really scary stuff going on with the Russians and the Tories back in the days of the coalition:

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Caron Lindsay

Ed and Jo on Chuka joining the Lib Dems

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 14th June 2019 - 10:25 am

Both the leadership candidates have warmly welcomed Chuka Umunna to the Lib Dems:

Ed said:

Stopping Brexit is my number one priority and I welcome Chuka to our benches as a key player in this fight. He has shown huge courage, and will make a major contribution to the Liberal Democrats.

Liberal Democrats are back in the game, and the only viable force for pro-Europeans across the UK. Join us.

Jo said:

I have said all along that growing a liberal movement means reaching out to bring more people into our party, and I am delighted that Chuka has decided to join the Liberal Democrats.

I have worked with Chuka on the People’s Vote campaign, and I know the passion, intellect, and energy he will bring to our party, and our campaign to stop Brexit.

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Mark Valladares

13 June 2019 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 13th June 2019 - 11:45 pm

For obvious reasons, I’m leaving out today’s big story, but otherwise…

Failed Tory policies lead to nine-year knife crime high

Responding to the Ministry of Justice’s latest knife and offensive weapon sentencing statistics, published today, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey said:

The UK is facing an epidemic of knife crime, but the Conservative’s cack-handed response is to repeat policies that have completely failed in the past.

Branding young people as criminals – whether by locking them up on destructive short prison sentences or giving them one of Sajid Javid’s gimmicky new knife ASBOs – traps them in a cycle

…

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 12 June 2019

By The Voice | Thu 13th June 2019 - 11:15 am

Ed’s first email to party members was published.

Climate change’s devastation won’t respect borders – you have to work internationally, with other countries, if you want to save our planet.

That’s what I did, as Energy and Climate Change Minister. At the European table and at the UN, I fought for tougher targets to cut carbon emissions.

And I won.

Now – just as we are leading the campaign to Stop Brexit – I want us to lead the fight to solve the Climate Change Emergency. With my radical economic plan, for carbon-free capitalism.

Then he took the Business Secretary to task over the Government’s record on the environment, dismantling a lot of what he did as Energy and Climate Change Secretary:

In wholeheartedly welcoming this statement, may I ask the Secretary of State to do two things? First, will he reverse the Government’s decisions to abolish the zero-carbon homes regulations, to ban onshore wind, and to proceed with a third runway at Heathrow? Secondly, will he agree to meet me to discuss how we can decarbonise capitalism, particularly in the City of London? Given that the City funds 15% of global fossil fuel investment, if we can decarbonise the City, that can have a massive impact on the whole world.

And in an article for the Times (£), he said he’d take Lib Dems into a Government of National Unity to stop Brexit.

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Mark Valladares

11 June 2019 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 11th June 2019 - 11:45 pm

Regular readers may wonder where this feature disappeared to over the past week or so. The answer, North Macedonia and Georgia, and fascinating both countries were too. But there’s always a point where you have to come home…

Davey: MI5 revelations “a shocking breach of civil liberties”

Responding to today’s High Court hearing over MI5’s collection and storage of bulk data, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey said:

These revelations represent a shocking breach of civil liberties by one of the agencies tasked with safeguarding them.

The Liberal Democrats have consistently opposed giving MI5 powers to collect bulk communications data,

…

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 11 June 2019

By The Voice | Tue 11th June 2019 - 9:00 pm

Today, Ed has expressed his concern over MI5’s inappropriate handling of data:

These revelations represent a shocking breach of civil liberties by one of the agencies tasked with safeguarding them.

The Liberal Democrats have consistently opposed giving MI5 powers to collect bulk communications data, and the serious issues raised by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner show that we were right to do so.

“Parliament needs to look again at the surveillance powers we give MI5 and other agencies, and roll back laws that unnecessarily erode privacy and liberty.

In an interview with i, he suggested that Conservative and Labour MPs were thinking about joining us.

Sir Ed, who is battling Jo Swinson to become leader of the party, told iconversations were taking place with opposition MPs to join the Lib Dems as the UK’s exit from the European Union had redrawn the political divide.

“There are some Conservative MPs who are thinking the unthinkable and there are some liberal Labour people who are thinking the unthinkable,” Sir Ed said.

But, as he said to the Huffington Post, they would have to win over party members.

In an interview with HuffPost UK, the Lib Dem leadership candidate said Chuka Umunna, Heidi Allen and others would be “welcome” to join his party.

But he made clear they would have to work hard to win over of local party activists who had spent years fighting them.

“Every election we have to get my local party members to reselect me,” Davey said.

“Anyone coming over would go through that process. They would need to win the trust of the local party members.”

 

He also outlined his plan to stop Brexit:

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 10 June 2019

By The Voice | Mon 10th June 2019 - 10:00 pm

Ed reacted to the worrying economic statistics this morning:

This is a really worrying indicator of the fragile state of our economy and should shame any Tory leadership candidate continuing to push for a no-deal Brexit. If just uncertainty can cause this shrink in manufacturing and our GDP, then it doesn’t bear thinking about what crashing out of Europe with no-deal could do.

These aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet, this is having an impact on the lives of people up and down the country employed in industries like car manufacturing who are already losing their jobs. Enough is enough. Things have changed since June 2016 – we have got to give the people the final say on Brexit with the option to stay.

He also supported a campaign to introduce same sex marriage in Northern Ireland:

And in an article in the Independent, he ripped into Boris and other Brexiteers.

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The Voice

Ed’s weekend – 7-9 June 2019

By The Voice | Sun 9th June 2019 - 8:00 pm

On Friday, Ed made the long journey to Aberdeen – 7.5 hours on a train from London.

The first hustings took place there but, first, a look back to an op ed he did last week for the New Statesman on LGBT rights:

Over the last 50 years, the hard work by campaigners and rights groups has seen the UK take hugely progressive steps in the right direction. In my lifetime alone our country has overcome so many barriers in the fight for equality. I am proud to have been a part of this fight and particularly proud to have introduced the amendment to repeal the abhorrent Section 28 in 2003 and to have been a part of legislating for equal marriage when Liberal Democrats were in government. It is shocking to recall how recently the UK banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in Britain’s schools (under Section 28) and denied people the right to marry the person they love because of their gender.

And then on to more hustings at a a beautiful venue in Edinburgh:

The final hustings of the weekend was in Newcastle

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 6th June 2019

By The Voice | Thu 6th June 2019 - 11:00 pm

Ed’s day started with a good luck message to Beki Sellick, Lib Dem candidate in Peterborough:

Phillip Hammond has been complaining about the costs of fighting climate change. Ed says that we can’t afford not to:

Hammond might be trying to reclaim his crown as a fiscal hawk in the dying embers of May’s premiership, but this intervention is wrong headed and threatens our children’s future.

The cost of tackling the climate emergency is massively outweighed by the long term cost of not acting. The Chancellor has got his sums wrong.

The time to act is now. Just this week a new report concluded that 30,000 premature deaths could be avoided by stopping the burning of fossil fuels, proving a clean future is a healthier future.

With ambitious, stable, policies, Britain can have a competitive green economy, benefitting from the lower cost of hi-tech renewable energy.

Ed also welcomed comments form the Speaker that there would be no chance of Parliament being prorogued to force through a no-deal Brexit:

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 5th June 2019

By The Voice | Wed 5th June 2019 - 10:08 pm

Ed’s day started in Surbiton, at a business breakfast with London Mayoral candidate Siobhan Benita.

He commented on the D-Day anniversary:

Then he, too, was off to Peterborough to see by-election candidate Beki Sellick ahead of tomorrow’s poll.

And, on World Environment Day, he commented on a Treasury Select Committee report about decarbonisation.

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 4th June 2019

By The Voice | Tue 4th June 2019 - 9:45 pm

After a relative lull yesterday, Ed had a bit of a whirlwind of a day.

He joined other Lib Dems in protesting Trump and wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post explaining why.

Trump has insulted the mayor of the capital hosting him, insulted the Duchess of Sussex just days before being hosted by the Queen, and insulted thousands of people working in the NHS by telling his ambassador to demand that American companies must be able to win contracts to run our hospitals. There is much I admire about America, but its health system isn’t one of them.

I marched against Brexit and now I will march against the same politics of division that President Trump personifies.

Our so-called government might be prepared to roll out the red carpet in a desperate attempt to curry favour with a president who’s willing to rip up international progress on the climate crisis, roll back women’s rights and demonise migrants. But for a Tory Party that prided itself on its royalism, it clearly doesn’t care that it has forced the Queen to host one of her most awkward visitors since Nicolae Ceausescu.

Then he challenged the Government on failure to make good its promise on the Dubs Amendment to take unaccompanied refugee children.

It is good to hear the Minister accept that the best way to prevent refugees from taking these dangerous crossings is to provide safe, legal routes to sanctuary for those fleeing persecution. Going back to the Dubs amendment, the Government promised two years ago to provide a scheme for 480 unaccompanied refugee children. When will that promise be delivered?

And he wished everyone Eid Mubarak

And chaired the board of an environmental organisation

And when the ChUK’s fell apart he said:

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 3 June 2019

By The Voice | Mon 3rd June 2019 - 10:55 pm

After a frenetic weekend, it’s been a quieter day for our two leadership candidates.

Like Jo, Ed had something to say about our unwelcome house guest.

And he visited a local children’s cancer charity.

Check out Ed’s website for updates.

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The Voice

Ed’s Weekend – 1st and 2nd June 2019

By The Voice | Sun 2nd June 2019 - 9:15 pm

It’s been a hectic weekend for the leadership candidates. Numerous media interviews, travelling across the country for three sets of hustings. It’s a gruelling pace and there’s two months to go.

We’re going to try and keep up with them every day during the leadership campaign, once at the weekend.

The weekend kicked off on Friday night when the first hustings took pace in London.

Watch here:

And there was a joint interview on Channel 4 News. 

Yesterday it was on to Winchester

And Bath

Today, Ed was interviewed on Pienaar’s Politics on Radio 5 Live talking about the differences between him and Jo, climate change and Donald Trump.. Listen here.

Then he went to Wales to do some recall campaigning in Brecon and Radnor.

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The Voice

Ed and Jo round 1 – the London leadership hustings

By The Voice | Fri 31st May 2019 - 9:05 pm

It’s going to be a gruelling month for our Lib Dem leadership candidates. They’ve both had a fair bit of media exposure the last couple of days and tonight they are in Jeremy Corbyn’s backyard having their first hustings.

If anyone who is actually there wants to write up a report of the event, it would be very gratefully received. There were a lot of you there – which is fantastic on a Friday night on not that much notice.

In the meantime, here’s the pick of the tweets from the event. London Lib Dems did a fairly comprehsensive blow by blow account. Here are some other voices.

New members are impressed:

Opening statements

 

Questions

First, Brexit

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Alistair Carmichael MP

Alistair Carmichael MP writes…How Lib Dem MPs will approach the leadership election

By Alistair Carmichael MP | Fri 31st May 2019 - 9:20 am

Next month will mark eighteen years since I was first elected as a Member of Parliament. To say it has been something of a rollercoaster would be an understatement – so it feels good to be on the way back up again!

One of the things that has made the process of rebuilding so much easier over the last couple of years has been the really good team dynamic that we have within the parliamentary party. Most of the time agreement on positioning and priorities is simple and intuitive. When it is not then I think we manage our discussions and differences well. Even when Stephen Lloyd felt it necessary to resign the whip because of undertakings he had given to his constituents before he was elected, the process was amicable and we all remain on good terms with Stephen.

It is against that background that we now embark on a leadership contest between two of our own colleagues – Jo Swinson and Ed Davey. The choice for the party will be between two different styles and sometimes maybe priorities. Our greatest strength is that as a party we are united. We simply do not have the ideological splits that will probably split either or both of the Conservative or Labour Parties in the next twelve months. Whichever of the two candidates is chosen by the members will lead a united group in the House of Commons. I would be as happy to work with either Jo or Ed as leader as I have been to work with Vince for the last two years.

Our constitution gives a special role to MPs in the process of electing a party leader – it requires any candidate to have the support of at least ten percent of the rest of the parliamentary party. In a parliamentary party of over fifty that made sense. In a parliamentary party of eleven things are different. That is why Liberal Democrat MPs have decided to treat their role in this election as a different, essentially neutral one. As all MPs are happy to work with either Jo or Ed as leader our role should be to facilitate a vote amongst the members. We will do this by agreeing that two MPs will nominate Jo (Tom Brake and Christine Jardine) and that two of us will nominate Ed (Wera Hobhouse and Jamie Stone).

In nominating in this way they act on behalf of us all in saying that we will work with whoever the membership should choose and that they should make the choice. Of course some parliamentary colleagues will want to make their preference known in the course of the campaign (Vince, as outgoing leader will not, nor will I as chief whip) but that is quite apart from the nomination process.

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Ed Davey

Ed Davey MP writes…My leadership would be about liberalism, climate change and stopping Brexit

By Ed Davey | Thu 30th May 2019 - 3:31 pm

Climate change. Liberalism. Winning. That’s been my political story – and I want it to be the Liberal Democrats’ story.  And with the magnificent victories in this month’s local and European elections, the Liberal Democrats are getting back in the game. I want to thank Vince, a giant of liberalism, for his role in getting us here and his contribution to fighting Brexit.

Under my leadership, the Liberal Democrats would continue to lead the fight to Stop Brexit. I am writing to Speaker Bercow to ensure a No Deal Brexit cannot happen without a vote in Parliament. But I also want to make the positive case for Britain’s membership of the European Union. I’m an economist by training, and for me the economic case to stop Brexit is overwhelming. But for too long the British argument over Europe has only been made by reference to economics. Europe has also been a hugely successful vehicle for peace, and Britain must stay in the front seat.

I also want us to reach out to Leave communities and Leave voters –they are our neighbours, our friends, our work colleagues, our brothers and sisters. These divisions in our country have distressed me more than anything I’ve seen in my political career. I want to build a future politics where people – particularly outside of London – don’t feel frozen out or ignored and feel included in our great British family.

As Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, I worked for three years to get renewable power investment. We nearly quadrupled Britain’s green energy, making Britain a world leader in offshore wind power. By pushing hard for manufacturing investment, we created jobs and revived places like Hull, Grimsby and Lowestoft.  This is the sort of hope and investment in coastal towns and cities that can prove to Leave communities that Liberal Democrats care.

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The Voice

Ed Davey launches campaign to lead Lib Dems

By The Voice | Thu 30th May 2019 - 2:12 pm

Ed Davey has launched his campaign to be Lib Dem Leader in a video posted on Twitter.

He has a new website, Ed for Leader.

Ed’s plan has three main themes:

Winning campaigns

Fighting for Liberal values

Tackling the climate emergency

And for those of you who have just joined the party, here’s a bit more about him:

Ed first got active in politics after reading Seeing Green by Jonathan Porritt as a teenager – and green issues have remained close to his heart ever since. After serving as the Economics Adviser to Paddy Ashdown, Ed won his seat of Kingston and Surbiton in 1997, when it was 106th on the target list.

From there, Ed has helped Liberal Democrats across the country, at all levels, get elected, including a diverse and majority female group in his home borough.

Ed lost both his parents as a child – and was a young carer for his mum before she passed away when he was 15, So Ed knows how challenging life can be – and how important the NHS is. Caring for the less fortunate has been the hallmark of his political career – for constituents and his campaigns for the bereaved, the disabled and the homeless.

In Coalition Ed began as a Business Minister, laying the groundwork for Shared Parental Leave under Vince Cable. In 2012 Ed became the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change where he quadrupled renewable power and made the UK the world leader in offshore wind. In Europe, Ed led climate change negotiations and won ambitious news targets people never thought would be agreed – so directly helping to get the Paris Climate Treaty.

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Mark Valladares

30 May 2019 – the overnight press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 30th May 2019 - 7:30 am

Davey: Stopping Brexit only solution on citizens’ rights

Responding to the Home Affairs Select Committee’s report on the EU Settled Status scheme, published today , Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey said:

The Liberal Democrats have long been warning that Brexit will create a new Windrush Scandal.

No one really believes that the Home Office will successfully grant Settled Status to all 3.6 million EU citizens before the arbitrary 2021 deadline. And no one should be reliant on a Home Office IT system to prove their right to live and work in the UK.

We support any efforts to improve the scheme, but

…

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Caron Lindsay

Were you denied the right to vote on Thursday? Let us know

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 25th May 2019 - 6:14 pm

Two Lib Dem MPs expected to stand for the leadership of the party have called for action after EU citizens were denied the right to vote on Thursday because local authorities hadn’t properly processed their applications. The Guardian reports that the Government may face action:

The government is facing calls to launch an urgent investigation into the treatment of EU citizens in the European elections after many people reported being denied their democratic right to vote.

Voters across the country told of their devastation at finding their names crossed off the register due to clerical errors by local councils. Experts said the situation was a “scandal we knew was coming” and that the government may have a case to answer in court.

The affected voters said they felt they were being “silenced” as this was the only election they had a right to participate in, being ineligible to vote in the referendum or general elections.

Our two as yet undeclared expected leadership candidates have had strong words to say on the subject.

Ed Davey put out a call for evidence from those affected.

And Jo Swinson called for an investigation:

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Mark Valladares

23 May 2019 – today’s press release

By Mark Valladares | Thu 23rd May 2019 - 10:42 pm

Turning EU citizens away feels like a deliberate attempt to silence voices

Responding to reports that EU citizens are being turned away from polling stations and denied a vote, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey said:

It is an utter disgrace that so many EU citizens have been unable to vote in these historic elections.

This feels like a deliberate attempt by the Conservatives to silence the voices of our fellow Europeans.

Liberal Democrats will hold the government to account for this bureaucratic shambles and ensure that the voices of EU citizens are heard.

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