Tag Archives: featured

Chris Coghlan MP

Chris Coghlan MP writes…SEND reform must put children with complex needs at the centre; not treat them as an afterthought

By Chris Coghlan MP | Wed 4th November 2026 - 3:29 pm

I hear the same stories week after week in surgeries and inboxes. Exhausted parents fighting for the support their children need and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans stuck at home for months because no suitable place can be found. Our local schools doing their best under impossible pressure. Surrey has long been one of the areas hardest hit by the national SEND crisis, and families here know the human cost better than most.

This is not a partisan issue. I know that cross-party concern is growing, and organisations like the SEND Matters Coalition are right to sound the alarm. The Liberal Democrats have always believed that every child has a right to an education that meets their needs. That principle must guide any reform.

I welcome the Government’s declared ambition to improve early identification and strengthen mainstream support. Extra resources for mainstream schools are necessary and many children with SEND can and should thrive in inclusive settings when the right help is in place from the start. However, it is simply not credible to claim that this alone solves the problem for those with the most complex needs. There is already a shortage of specialist places. Pretending otherwise risks leaving the most vulnerable children behind while the system is redesigned around those who can more easily be included. We cannot spend the next decade building a better system for the future while allowing a generation of children with complex needs to fall through the cracks in the meantime.

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Caron Lindsay

Scottish Lib Dems defeat SNP on Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 31st October 2026 - 10:00 am

This week Scottish Lib Dems inflicted the first parliamentary defeat of this session on the minority SNP Government. SNP candidates had championed the idea of a Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill for years and it was in their manifesto for the elections in May. I represented the party at numerous hustings on disability, including specific ones to do with supporting people with learning disabilities, autism and neurodivergence, and there was unanimity amongst all parties.

Earlier this month, the SNP Government said that it would no longer pursue this, claiming that they could make change more quickly as though these things were a binary choice.

All MPs and MSPs in Scotland will have read heartbreaking accounts of the struggles that families of people with LDAN face, not least that the waiting lists for ADHD assessments in some areas are longer than half an entire statutory education period of 13 years. Think of the effect that that has on life chances. All MPs and MSPs in Scotland will be aware of children not going to school because there is simply not the support for them to enable them to access education.

The SNP’s decision to shelve the Bill and enshrine rights in law is unconscionable and we used our opposition day on Wednesday to call on the Government to bring back the Bill.

You can read the whole debate here.

The motion was proposed by Adam Harley, our health spokesperson:

On average, people with learning disabilities in Scotland die 20 years earlier than the wider population, and too many people continue to experience profound inequalities in healthcare, education, employment, social care and the justice system. That is why so many people had placed their hope in the proposed legislation, ever since the Government committed to it in 2021.

Justice spokesperson Yi-Pei Chou Turvey spoke about the impact of the justice system on people with learning disabilities, neurodivergence and autism:

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Vince Cable

Vince Cable writes: A budget of small things

By Vince Cable | Wed 28th October 2026 - 9:06 pm

The Chancellor hasn’t crashed the economy by reckless unfunded commitments. Perhaps we should be grateful for small mercies (of which Liz Truss’s new book helpfully reminds us). Nor were there any damaging measures like Rachel Reeves’ big hike in employers’ national insurance contributions. There were lots of small, uncontroversial reliefs for consumers and business which are being paid for by raiding the banks (as I previewed in my last Substack article: The Endless Search for Painless Taxes). But as Kemi Badenoch asked, in her rather effective reply to the Budget, ‘Is that It?’

Much of the budget had been trailed in advance so that there were few surprises. But the reason why the budget was so light on serious content was that the big difficult decisions have been deferred to the Spring Statement. This will explain what is being cut to pay for defence commitments and rising welfare costs, sufficient to keep the government on a financially sustainable path, credible to our international creditors (or, if the expected cuts prove to be too painful, would provide a pretext for the government to go to the country to get a mandate to raise the taxes which were ruled out in the last Labour manifesto).

To be fair to the Chancellor his speech was built around a recognition that the only way of escaping the painful trap of rising fiscal deficits and debt, rising taxation and public spending austerity is to achieve more rapid economic growth. Groth has suffered badly from successive shocks: the global financial crisis; Brexit; Covid; the Ukraine war; now the Middle East war. The government’s own projections are in the 1.5 to 2% range, barely adequate to match the needs of an ageing population, debt service and a growing need to spend more on national security. The forecasts are, frankly, optimistic given the poor external environment of conflict, protectionism and geo-political uncertainty.

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The Voice

David Chadwick launches bid to be Welsh Lib Dem Leader

By The Voice | Wed 28th October 2026 - 10:55 am

Following Jane Dodds saying that she will not seek re-nomination as Welsh Lib Dem Leader, the only other person eligible to stand under the current constitution is David Chadwick MP. He has now formally thrown his hat into the ring.

He will be confirmed in post and will set out his vision and strategy then.

David was elected in 2024 and is the Wales spokesperson in Ed Davey’s Shadow Cabinet.

He said:

Wales is a country with enormous potential. We have talented young people, innovative businesses and communities with the ambition to achieve great things. But too often, that ambition isn’t matched by the opportunities available to people.

I want to see a Wales where hard work is rewarded, where businesses have the confidence to invest and grow, and where young people can build successful lives without feeling they have to leave Wales to get ahead.

Economic growth and strong public services go hand in hand. By supporting enterprise, creating better jobs and raising living standards, we can build the prosperity needed to improve the services we all depend on.

That is the kind of optimistic, ambitious liberalism I believe in. A politics that believes in people’s potential and gives them the freedom and opportunities to succeed.

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Lord William Wallace

Don’t take Democracy for granted

By Lord William Wallace | Fri 23rd October 2026 - 10:49 am

We’re Liberals and Democrats, and we should be outspoken in support of both.  And both have to be fought for to prevent our country sliding back into illiberalism and authoritarian government.

At the end of the Cold War American liberals thought that democracy had triumphed, and that authoritarian states would move towards liberal democracy as they became more prosperous and more integrated into our open world society.  35 years later, things look far less rosy.  Orban’s illiberal regime in Hungary has thankfully just fallen, although it is still too soon to see how stable and constitutional its new government will be.  Trump’s second administration in the US has shown how easy it is for a populist leader to sweep past constitutional safeguards and create a corrupt and chaotic autocracy; we may at last see after the mid-term elections some belated resistance.  In France we are watching a surge of anti-constitutional violence, which may well lead to a hard-right executive presidency in their coming elections.   And we are witnessing in Britain illiberal movements on the left and the right, with Farage as a pluto-populist (a politician financed by the ultra-wealthy who claims to stand for the ‘people’ against the elite) and Tommy Robinson as a violent anti-democrat.

In the face of this, the current Labour Government is astonishingly complacent.  Manifesto promises to modernise the Commons have shrunk to a few measures to improve access; Burnham’s government payroll in the Commons is even larger than Starmer’s or Sunak’s.  Its changes to the composition of the Lords have been minimal, and a flood of new appointments is again leading to an oversized House.  The Representation of the People Bill passed through the Commons virtually unchanged; the Lords will do its best to regulate political finance and foreign interference more tightly than the government is proposing.   Behind Burnham’s rhetoric about changing the voting system many Labour veterans are denying the need for change.  David Blunkett, among others, has welcomed the troubles that Reform and the Greens now face as marking a return to our traditional two-party system.  Public trust in Westminster politics is low, and many young people are disillusioned and disengaged.

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Vince Cable

Vince Cable writes: The endless hunt for painless taxes

By Vince Cable | Thu 22nd October 2026 - 11:55 am

Few expect Andy Burnham’s extended political honeymoon to last beyond the October 28 budget. The fiscal position is precarious. The bond vigilantes are signalling their nervousness about the UK in the form of 10 year bond yields of 5.4% : the highest of developed economies (despite some nice comments from the IMF). The public will expect to see some evidence of the Prime Minister’s commitment to spend more on defence, employment for young people, affordable housing, meeting the NHS and social care needs of an ageing population, together with some relief from high energy costs, which may spiral further if Trump returns to war with Iran after the mid-term elections on November 5. A promise to defer difficult budget decisions until next year will not convince markets.

The tax options are seriously constrained by the unnecessary pre-election promise not to raise VAT rates or the rates of income tax and employees NICs. Taxes are already approaching 40% of GDP, a post-war high. But more will be needed. The government has, however, already discovered that seemingly easy options targeted at companies and rich people can backfire. Rachel Reeves’ increase in employers’ NICs has angered employers and threatens jobs. A tax raid on inheritance has proved to be less of a tax on rich heirs to family fortunes than a major threat to family farms and firms. Some big taxpayers amongst the ‘non-doms’ have emigrated rather than pay more tax. VAT receipts on private school fees have had to be netted off against the costs of educating children of less affluent families who have migrated to the state sector. Successive attempts to hit the well off by salami-slicing pension tax relief have undermined savings. Gordon Brown’s seemingly innocuous ending of tax relief on company dividends helped to end DB pension schemes. Clever schemes to combat cleverer tax avoidance have added to complexity and economic distortions. The Law of Unintended Consequences is unforgiving.

Taxation is unpopular and so is ‘austerity’ applied to popular public services. Politicians who want to be liked, or win elections, face a dilemma: how to raise revenue painlessly while avoiding damaging unintended consequences. Experience tells us that it is impossible to square this circle. Taxes on companies are hidden from the public but are mainly passed on in -unpopular – higher prices or by reductions in investment. Taxes on rich people may be popular with people who aren’t rich but rich people are potentially mobile and able to afford tax advice on avoidance techniques. Wealth taxes have been largely abandoned except where they are very small (as in Switzerland). Property is not mobile but the taxation of family homes is deeply unpopular with the public outside of ‘mansions’. These problems are unlikely to deter Mr Healey from trying to squeeze a bit more from Capital Gains Tax (which can deter the establishment of new businesses), tax relief on pension contributions (deterring savings) or high-value property (which can’t be isolated from the wider property market). These all tick the box marked ‘fairness’ but they represent the last bit of a much squeezed toothpaste tube.

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Caron Lindsay

Jane Dodds to step down as Welsh Lib Dem Leader

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 20th October 2026 - 7:50 pm

Jane Dodds on Conference stage in front of banner saying "none shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity"

For nine years, Jane Dodds has led the Welsh Liberal Democrats through some very challenging times. By the time she took office, the party had been brutally punished at the ballot box for its role in the Coalition and the ensuing decade has not provided the most fertile of territory for us.

However, Jane has stood up consistently for our values in that challenging environment. She has always stood up for human rights, proposed ways to alleviate child poverty, including a Universal Basic Income. In fact, she was responsible for me becoming more sympathetic to that. She was one of the first politicians to talk about tackling loneliness and social isolation. She’s been a voice for marginalised people and deserves our pride and gratitude.

Just as in the Federal Party, elections for the Scottish and Welsh parties trigger a  leadership election. Alex Cole-Hamilton was quietly re-elected as Scottish Leader unopposed a month or so back. Tonight, Jane has announced that she is stepping down as Welsh Leader.

In a statement emailed to Welsh Lib Dem members before being released publicly, she said:

I wanted you to hear this from me first, before anyone else: I have decided to stand down as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

Leading this party has been the honour of my life. When you elected me in 2017, I said I wanted to bring like-minded people together, rebuild our party, and make the Welsh Liberal Democrats a radical, progressive force in Welsh politics again. Nearly nine years on, I hope you feel we have done that together.

We’ve won councillors in every corner of Wales. With just one voice in the Senedd, we used our budget deal to win real money for childcare, for families who were desperate for it. We’ve fought for the children growing up in poverty in our country. And when others wanted Wales to turn its back on refugees, we stood up, loudly and proudly, for Wales as a Nation of Sanctuary.

None of that happened because of me. It happened because of you: the leaflets, the doorsteps, the phone banks, the wet Saturday mornings. Thank you.

I’ve spent the summer thinking hard about May’s election. If I’m honest, it wasn’t the result we worked so hard for. Once again, I am our party’s only Member of the Senedd. I don’t want to be the only one after the next election. Wales needs a team of liberal voices in the Senedd, and that means starting now. We need new candidates, new councillors and new leaders who will spend the next few years in their communities, shaping our policies and making our case on the airwaves. I believe that work should be led by a new generation, and that the right time to hand over is now, while there is time to build.

When I became leader, Theresa May was Prime Minister and Carwyn Jones was First Minister. Six Prime Ministers and five First Ministers later, I hope I have given our party something steady to build on.

I am not going anywhere. I will carry on as the Member of the Senedd for Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd, and I will carry on doing what brought me into politics in the first place.

I spent 27 years as a child protection social worker. I saw what poverty does to children, and I have never been able to accept it. One child growing up in poverty is one too many. Today, more than 200,000 children in Wales, almost one in three, are growing up poor. The new Plaid Cymru Government has promised to put child poverty at the heart of everything it does. I will hold them to that promise every single day, and I will keep pushing them to go further and faster, until every child in Wales gets the start in life they deserve.

Our Party President, Tim Sly, will write to you in the coming days with the timetable for the leadership election.

Finally, my thanks to our staff and volunteers, who have given so much, and above all to my husband Patrick. I could not have done any of this without his love, patience and support.

Diolch o galon, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Jane.

At the time of writing, the only eligible candidate is Wales’ other parliamentarian, David Chadwick.

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Vince Cable

Vince Cable writes: Drill, baby, drill…or not

By Vince Cable | Wed 30th September 2026 - 11:28 am

Now that the Prime Minister is back from his trip to see Donald Trump and has enjoyed the emotional warm bath of his party conference, he rejoins the world of hard choices. The budget looms. A more immediate question is to decide on whether to proceed with drilling for gas and oil in the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields in the North Sea.

The politics are awful. Environmentalists regard the issue as central to the government’s credibility on climate change. The Labour v Green battle in Camden provides context. On the other hand, rejection of the developments will send a negative signal to those, including bond traders, who are looking for signs of commitment to economic growth and those who worry about energy security. Both sets of voices have been loudly heard at Labour conference not least from the new Scottish Labour leader, Michael Marra, who wants to press ahead with both developments. For her part, Kemi Badenoch has made this a signature issue for the Tories and will be shouting ‘Drill baby drill’ next week. President Trump will undoubtedly provide his own, loud backing for fossil fuel exploitation: if he can tear himself away from his plans to construct a giant ballroom and a triumphal age honouring his rule

In fact, the serious arguments are complex and allow for a nuanced approach. I took to the airwaves last week to defend Ed Davey’s decision to back the Jackdaw field on its own separate merits. Jackdaw is a Shell development (spoiler alert: I used to work for them 30 years ago). The gas field, east of Aberdeen, is already underway but was paused by a Greenpeace injunction seeking a climate change assessment. The field should provide around 5% of gas demand in the UK and that gas would be otherwise imported. Gas will remain a transitional fuel while renewables are developed and there are good reasons for producing it in Britain rather than importing it (Norway is the major and uncontroversial source; the USA and Qatar more subject to political intrusion). Ed was right on this issue and his experience as Energy Secretary gives credibility to his assessment. (I confess that I had more difficulty defending the proposed subsidy on motor fuel). 

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Caron Lindsay

Andy Burnham’s speech was good: Here’s how Lib Dems can make the implementation better

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th September 2026 - 8:05 am

Chris Bowers talked about the lack of a “Yesss” moment at our Conference yesterday.

Well, like buses, if you wait long enough, several come along at once – the problem is that they were in the speech of the leader of another party.

Andy Burnham’s speech yesterday was quite simply one of the best I have ever heard from a UK politician. It had heart and soul and ideas and emotion and mission. I had goosebumps and it’s a long time since a speech has done that to me. I’d have to go back to Obama for that.

A speech that targeted the good emotions, ignited the things that bind us together. You have to give it credit.

I will never, ever join the Labour Party a) because I am a liberal to my core and b) because they, whatever good they do are so authoritarian and centralising and one size fits all that they need a liberal party to stop them when they go too far.

But the job of a liberal party is to help rebuild a culture of togetherness to combat the horrific targeting of marginalised communities we have seen from Reform and its evil twin Restore, the Conservatives and, yes, from the Labour Party when it’s tried to ape Reform in a cowardly quest to get its vote back.

We should broadly welcome Andy Burnham’s clear enthusiasm to get moving on closer relations with Europe, social care, electoral reform, getting utilities into more public ownership. So what has our reaction been:

“Andy Burnham spent years telling the country what he would do if he were in power. Now that he is sitting in Number 10, what we got was a lot of ‘Definitely Maybe’ and a total absence of action today.

“Families struggling with a broken social care system cannot wait until after another election and it can’t be funded from the pockets of our poorest pensioners. Communities blighted by sewage cannot wait yet another decade to finally stop profit trumping morals in our water industry.

“This Prime Minister had a historic opportunity to start to fix our broken voting system and rebuild our relationship with Europe, but everything remains a maybe.

“This looks too much like Starmerism with a veneer of panache.”

It’s all a bit po-faced.

Surely we should be saying that there are things we can work with him on?

Now, it’s not surprising that we are rushing to defend the Pension Triple Lock that was our idea. Over the past decade and a bit it’s worked to restore poorer pensioner’s incomes. And pensioners on fixed incomes have a lot to lose as, for example, energy bills get higher leading to wider inflation.

I get that it’s an important thing for us, but I do think we need to look at whether there is some wriggle room here. Has it done its job? Do we need to look at what Burnham is proposing in more detail and look at what it does to affect older people’s lives in a holistic way?

The right are going to go after Burnham on this big time. Do we really need to be part of that chorus? Using some savings from the triple lock while protecting poorer pensioners does seem like an idea that we should not immediately dismiss.  We could perhaps be more nuanced in our comments.

Yet I suspect we will be contributing to the noise with petitions and campaigns and votes against. Let’s be a bit more constructive. Let’s listen to young people as well who feel as though their generation is being forgotten.

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Anton Georgiou

Britain should be proud, but never afraid of the stranger

By Anton Georgiou | Tue 29th September 2026 - 11:55 am

Anton Georgiou speaks at Conference Rally Photo credit: John Russell

More than 50 years ago, my grandparents, mother and aunts came to Britain as refugees from Cyprus. They arrived in London with just £20.

My grandfather took whatever job he could find. My grandmother spent long days in front of a sewing machine. They worked, saved, bought a home and raised their daughters.

Britain gave my family something they could not take for granted: the chance to be safe and build a future.

That history is personal to me. It also shapes how I think about the debate around refugees and asylum today.

The asylum system needs to be faster and more effective. Claims should be processed more quickly. Decisions cannot be allowed to drift for years. Public money should not be wasted through delay. Criminal gangs exploiting vulnerable people must face the full force of the law. Where someone has no right to remain, the state must be capable of enforcing its decisions.

A functioning asylum system should be able to do these things. Saying so isn’t hostility towards refugees.

The latest Home Office figures show that 85,891 people claimed asylum in the year to June 2026. At the end of June, more than 40,000 people were still waiting for an initial decision on their application. Those figures show the scale of the challenge. But they tell us very little about the people behind them.

It’s easy, in political debate, for a family to become a “case” and a person arriving here to become a statistic. We should resist a politics that turns administrative failure into an excuse to blame people who had little control over the circumstances that forced them to flee their homeland.

There are legitimate questions about immigration that liberals should be willing to answer.

The state has a responsibility to control its borders, and not every asylum claim can succeed. A liberal society should be able to enforce its rules without abandoning the principle that the people subject to them still deserve dignity.

For me, that is what liberalism should mean in practice.

Individual freedom and human rights are easy to defend when everyone agrees with you. The harder test is what you do when the politics becomes divisive and uncomfortable.

This is why Liberal Democrats should be willing to lead this debate. We shouldn’t leave questions of borders, asylum and migration to the far right. If people are worried that the state has lost control, liberals should be willing to address that concern. We shouldn’t retreat from the conversation, but neither should we abandon our values.

Communities are understandably frustrated when basic systems aren’t working. But directing that frustration at refugees does not fix these failures.

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Donna Harris

Lib Dem Women: Amplifying women’s voices at Conference

By Donna Harris | Sun 27th September 2026 - 8:55 am

Donna Harris speaking at Autumn Conference 2026I’ve just about emerged from the mayhem of Brighton — and I’m most definitely ready for a break!

But now I’ve had a chance to catch my breath, it has really struck me just how much Lib Dem Women, the official organisation representing women in the Lib Dems,  achieved over the course of conference.

From motions and amendments to our childcare campaign, new bursaries, fringes, campaigning and celebrating the achievements of women in our party, the voice and representation of women was truly amplified throughout conference.

And I’m incredibly proud of what our LDW team achieved.

Standing up for mothers and babies

We started the weekend with our amendment to F4: Mortality of Children in Temporary Accommodation, highlighting the particular impact of poor and temporary housing on mothers and babies and the importance of ensuring families receive the care and support they need.

LDW Executive member Cllr Hina Bokhari spoke powerfully on the issue, helping to ensure that the experiences of women and children were firmly part of the debate.

Jo Swinson and Donna Harris pose in "No Childcare, no changemakers, photo frame.Launching our campaign for childcare at conference

Saturday afternoon gave us our first opportunity to hear reactions to our new LDW Campaign for Childcare at Conference.

LDW has pledged £1,000 to get the initiative started, and we asked members to sign our petition so that we can take it to those with the power to make the scheme happen.

It was a huge pleasure to have Jo Swinson kick off the petition by backing the scheme.

We’re determined that parents and carers should not be prevented from participating fully in our party because they have childcare responsibilities.

Investing in women’s progression

We also announced a new LDW bursary and support programme at conference, designed to help women participate, develop and progress at all levels of our party.

The scheme includes:

  • Conference Fund: £500 each for two women
  • Online Conference Tickets: up to 10 tickets each conference
  • Conference Childcare Fund: £1,000
  • Future MPs’ Weekend: £500 each for two women
  • ALDC Kickstart: £320 each for two women

For me, this is a really important part of what LDW wants to achieve.

It is not enough simply to say we want more women involved. We need to help remove some of the financial and practical barriers that can prevent women from participating and progressing.

Whether that means being able to attend conference, develop campaigning and leadership skills, explore standing for Parliament or take the next step in their political journey, we want to invest in women and give them the opportunity to progress.

We don’t want our money sitting in the bank. We want to use it to support women.

Celebrating the women who built liberalism

Saturday afternoon also saw our long-awaited joint fringe with the History Group: Women for Liberty: Women Who Built Liberalism.

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The Voice

Christine Jardine to stand down as MP at next election

By The Voice | Sat 26th September 2026 - 7:22 pm

Official portrait of Christine Jardine @HouseofCommons/Roger Harris

Many of our readers will be very sad to see that Christine Jardine MP will not fight the next election.

In a statement tongiht she said:

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Caron Lindsay

What does a Lib Dem “trans activist” look like?

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 22nd September 2026 - 9:30 am

Yesterday afternoon, Lib Dem Conference passed a motion calling for the EHRC’s Code of Practice to be withdrawn and for work to be done on a cross party basis to work out what changes in the law were necessary to ensure that everyone, women, trans people, everyone can go about their lives in dignity and safety. It is not beyond the wit of people to find a way of doing that, and it is something that can be relatively easy given the political will.

The motion was passed overwhelmingly, as these things usually are. In fact, it looked to me as if the number voting against was even smaller than usual.

There has been much criticism on social media and the actual right wing media by members of the gender critical group within the party. They’re accusing Ed Davey of being in the thrall of militant “trans activists” in the party.

Now, and I say this with love, the idea that Ed Davey takes a blind bit of notice of anything ordinary party members say to him, is a bit of a stretch. He makes his own mind up about things and, like every leader in the existence of this party and most others, takes as much power as he can get his hands on. This is just what leaders do. But the idea that he is in thrall to any of us masses is just ridiculous.

Anyway, what do these “trans activists” who apparently make up around 90% of those in the hall and a probably similar proportion of the online vote look like?

Well, I guess I must be one.

So, what am I like?

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Caron Lindsay

Caron’s kitchen table diary

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 20th September 2026 - 10:31 am

I’m settling in to day 2 of watching Conference. I’ve already spent more time “in the hall” than I have in the past 3 in person conferences. I’m uaually to be found on the Lib Dem Women or LGBT+ Lib Dem stalls, or flitting about the place from meeting to meeting.

And how gorgeous is this stage set?  When I saw the purple, I wondered at first if our Jennie Rigg had had a hand in it. But, seriously, if she had, it would have had a lot more purple and Libby would have been turned into a bat.

What I really like is that we are wearing our heart on our sleeve. Right there, the quote from the preamble to our constitution closest to our hearts:

No-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.

On the other side of the stage, “Liberty, Equality, Community.”

And that’s not all. I usually avoid the rally for two reasons. First of all, I can watch it on You Tube any time. I get the chance to catch up with my friends and Lib Dem family twice a year. Secondly, the rally can be a bit of a vomit inducing cringe-fest.

Last night it was an assault on the emotions as speaker after speaker spoke about what motivated them as Lib Dems. Anton Georgiou from Brent talking about his grandparents arriving from Cyprus with £20 and working hard to make their lives here and how that has inspired him to do all the work he does to support refugees.  Wendy Chamberlain talking about how her mother caring for her Grandad and her husband caring for his mum inspired her to achieve her Carer’s Leave Act.

I wonder if all this values-forward stuff has anything to do with James Holt, our excellent head of media during the coalition years who has returned as our Director of Political Strategy. I am sure that he will understand the need to make sure that our actions match up.

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Victoria Collins MP

Victoria Collins MP writes.. The ask that changes everything

By Victoria Collins MP | Fri 18th September 2026 - 4:45 pm

There’s a moment every candidate remembers. Not the selection meeting, not the count on election night but the moment before when someone else believed in you, when someone asked you to stand. For most of us, we’d never have got there on our own. Someone else saw it first.

That’s the thread I kept coming back to recently, when the Joint Candidates Sub Committee brought together our Diversity Affiliated Organisations and Campaign Groups to talk about candidates. We heard a lot of honest, thoughtful feedback about our approvals and selection process – what’s working well, and where we must keep improving.

For me, this isn’t an abstract policy discussion on how we get more diverse candidates approved, selected and elected. It’s personal.

The new Candidates team have done a fantastic job of improving candidate onboarding and setting up a referral programme, we well as working on candidate support. Now, we need you.

Standing for Parliament didn’t feel like something for people like me. I only made it through because people in organisations like Chinese East and South East Asian (CESEA), the Campaign for Gender Balance and the Stellar Programme backed me with time, with mentoring, and with the money I didn’t have. Take any one of those away and I’m not writing this as an MP. I went from delivering leaflets to becoming the 656th woman ever elected to this Parliament, and our party’s first MP of East and South East Asian origin. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because people and programmes chose to invest in me.

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Shevaun Haviland CBE

The Independent View: To get Britain growing again, we must cut the cost of doing business 

By Shevaun Haviland CBE | Fri 18th September 2026 - 2:45 pm

 As the Liberal Democrats gather in Brighton, some of the discussion will focus on how to build a stronger, more productive and increasingly inclusive economy. The Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce argues that at a key component of this debate should be consideration of how to cut the costs of doing business.

On a recent visit to Lancashire, I met some incredible businesses from the manufacturing, construction, retail, and hospitality sectors. They all told me how squeezed they felt by rising cost pressures. 

But the picture that emerged from our conversations, wasn’t just of the pain businesses are feeling, but of the consequences. One firm said it had previously taken on 25 apprentices, but this year, under the weight of mounting costs, it is hiring just one. 

That story, unfortunately, is repeated across the land. British Chambers of Commerce research shows the cost stack facing a typical small or medium-sized business, built up from a decade of government policy decisions, has increased by more than 70%. A quarter of that increase has landed since the Autumn Budget of 2024. 

Ask business owners what worries them most, and the answer isn’t complicated: inflation, taxation, and business rates, in that order. According to our latest survey, just 17% of firms say they plan to increase investment in the coming months. That’s the lowest level since the pandemic.

 This should worry us all. Every pound a business spends absorbing higher costs, is a pound that doesn’t go towards hiring a young person, upgrading technology, or lowering prices on the shelves. An economy that works for everyone, depends on businesses having the confidence to back themselves. Currently, too many are hamstrung by costs outside their control before they even get the chance to hire, invest, or grow. 

 That is why, ahead of this year’s Budget, the British Chambers of Commerce is calling for urgent action to cut the cost of doing business.

 First, we must tackle the NEETs crisis. Over a million young people out of education, employment or training is a national scandal. Employers want to do their bit, but the incentives to hire young people have been removed, while the risks have grown and the environment toughened. An Employer’s National Insurance holiday for under-25s would make it cheaper and easier for firms to take on a young person rather than pass them over. 

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Bobby Dean

Bobby Dean writes: The Resilient State: Rethinking fiscal rules for the 21st Century

By Bobby Dean | Wed 16th September 2026 - 11:55 am

The Chancellor faces a difficult Budget.

There is little room to manoeuvre on tax or borrowing. Households and businesses are under enormous pressure. Long-term government borrowing costs have reached their highest level for decades. Yet Britain desperately needs investment.
In an attempt to reassure the markets, John Healey has earnestly pledged his allegiance to the fiscal rules. It’s a 30-year tradition. But, since 2008, Chancellors have increasingly struggled with the choices the rules produce.
We have seen the consequences.

Covid exposed an NHS with too little spare capacity. The energy crisis exposed our dependence on volatile oil markets. The hottest summer ever has demonstrated the threat that global warming poses to our infrastructure.

In an essay published yesterday by the New Economics Foundation, I argue that we need to change the question at the heart of every Budget from “What can we afford to borrow now?” to “What investment do we need to make to be better off tomorrow?”

It’s not an argument for borrowing more. It’s an argument for better spending.

While we must maintain debt discipline through strong rules, there are three fundamental problems with wider fiscal management that I believe we need to fix.

First, is the crude distinction between investment and day-to-day spending. Buying a tank is treated as investment. Training specialists to defend us from cyber attacks is not. We need to broaden how we define investment to recognise the value of people and skills.

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Mary Reid

Sarah Olney bids to become candidate for Mayor of London

By Mary Reid | Thu 10th September 2026 - 5:03 pm

Today Sarah Olney MP officially launched her bid to become the Liberal Democrat candidate in the London Mayoral election, which will take place in May 2028.

In her campaign to be selected as the candidate she stated that these are her priorities for London:

  • Making London the most business-friendly city in the world: By harnessing the power of London’s unparalleled business community and creating a Deputy Mayor for Business, elected by a consortium of business leaders based in London.
  • Improving the quality of London’s housing: Empowering renters, landlords and developers to raise housing standards; to boost energy efficiency, tackle mould & damp and guarantee accessibility.
  • Building more homes across London: Challenging Khan’s self-admitted failure on housing, by building more homes for the communities that need them, including through community-led housing, estate regeneration, and reviewing affordability and fast track requirements to bring in sustainable investment.
  • Connecting London with improved transport links: Halting cuts to bus services and tackling delays, while bringing all river crossings under a single strategic authority so vital arteries like Hammersmith Bridge are never again left to fall into disrepair and that important links like Canary Wharf-Rotherhithe crossing are delivered.
  • A safer city for all: Reversing the closure of police station front counters and putting victims back at the centre of policing culture, with a prompt, transparent and accountable process for every Londoner who reports a crime or antisocial behaviour.

Website: www.sarah4london.com/

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Grant Toghill

Going for four in a row in Scotland

By Grant Toghill | Wed 2nd September 2026 - 10:59 am

As parliament is back from recess and Scotland’s adventure at the World Cup start to feel like a distant memory, what better time to start to look forward towards the election year ahead.

Scotland has seen for the last three elections a growth of Liberal voices across all levels. From local councils to Westminster and Holyrood. While we are still celebrating our big wins in May, now the attention is turning towards next May and making it four in a row of gains for the Scottish Liberal Democrats under the leadership team of Alex and Wendy.

The results at Holyrood saw that in every constituency our list vote increased on 2021 so there are people out there ready to give us a chance. 87 councillors was our election total in 2022 and the ambition of getting back into three figures next May has been clear in almost all the time since being announced our autumn conference of that year. Which would be the first time since 2007 when we were last into the three figures range at Scottish local elections, and the only time we have done it so far under STV.

The opportunities to grow in our strongholds of Edinburgh and the Highlands are clearly there but May has shown that we also have the potential to grow in other areas to. If that be Aberdeen and Dundee in the North East of Scotland, continuing our growth in the Borders or starting to make comebacks across my home of the west central belt. There is no area off limits if we put in the work.

Multi-party politics is not new to us here in Scotland as it might be to other parts of the UK so we know that we can’t afford to take our foot off the gas. With Reform and the Scottish Greens being new challengers in urban and rural seats that has not been the case before, we have work to make sure not just that we win in our targets but that we keep our held seats.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: Canada

By Tom Arms | Sat 29th August 2026 - 10:30 am

What is the British government doing to support Canada? It is one of our closest allies. Our relationship with Canada is more special than that with the US. King Charles is their head of state. Canada is a fellow member of NATO, the G7, Five Eyes, the Commonwealth and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

This question should be asked on the floor of the House of Commons. And the person to ask it is Lib Dem leader Ed Davey. He has made his opposition to President Donald Trump crystal clear. The US-Canada trade war is an opportunity to translate opposition rhetoric into specific policies.

But he should be prepared for the answer which is a lot of waffle which will amount to – nothing.

And where is the rest of the world? Since becoming Canada’s Prime Minister, Carney has made 23 foreign trips to 29 countries. Almost all of them to promote his vision of a powerful new bloc of “Middle Powers” who can provide a collective bargaining front to the US and China. In a few weeks he will address the European Parliament.

Everywhere Carney has gone he has been given a sympathetic hearing and important agreements have been signed with the UK, the EU, Japan and Australia. But there is no sign that Canada’s friends are prepared to translate their sympathy into meaningful support in its confrontation with Trump.

The rest of the world is simply frightened of the mercurial American president. If they explicitly back Carney then they run the risk of retaliation from Trump, and virtually all of Carney’s allies are also allies of the US and dependent on the American nuclear umbrella for their ultimate security.

But they don’t need to explicitly join a retaliation against the US. The American political equation is about to dramatically change with the mid-term elections. The Democrats are strongly favoured  to win control of the House of Representatives and have a chance of also securing a majority in the Senate. The latest forecasts give the Democrats an 87 percent chance of winning control of the lower chamber and a 55 percent chance of doing the same in the upper chamber. Trump’s tariffs against Canada—in fact Trump himself—are deeply unpopular and a political shift in Congress is likely to mean the end of tariffs against Canada and personal problems for the president.

Carney’s supporters in Asia and Europe don’t need to join his trade war per se. They could show support for accelerating trade agreements; increasing purchases of Canadian goods; offer investment; coordinate critical mineral deals and increase defence procurement cooperation. The framework for the above has already been established by Carney’s diplomacy. It just needs to be activated.

If it is then that would be a giant step towards establishing Carney’s vision of a network of countries and organisations representing 1.5 billion people. This would give members of the network collective bargaining power in any negotiations with the US and China.

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Mary Reid

Happy Birthday to us!

By Mary Reid | Thu 27th August 2026 - 12:36 pm

Lib Dem Voice was launched 20 years ago today, on 27th August 2006.

In that time we have published 38,490 posts and 530,761 comments, and each has been lovingly read and edited by our team. Our Founding Editors were Mark Pack, Rob Fenwick and Will Howells and they were joined in by Stephen Tall and Richard Huzzey. You can see a full list of current and past editors here: The Liberal Democrat Voice team.

Over the years more than 3000 people have contributed posts. Our current Editor, Caron Lindsay, has penned an astonishing 4311 posts for LDV, just beating Mark’s 4106.

Here are a couple of memorable posts from the past:

Do add links in the Comments to other historic posts that readers might enjoy.

We have marked the passing of some great and interesting politicians.

April Fool’s posts have hoodwinked a surprising number of (presumably) rational Lib Dems.

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Roz Savage MP

Roz Savage MP writes: Liberalism is having a Moment. But does it have a future?

By Roz Savage MP | Sun 23rd August 2026 - 10:58 am

Liberalism seems to be going through an identity crisis. Within a few months, three very different thinkers have published books asking the same question: what has happened to Liberalism, and what would make it relevant again?

Adrian Wooldridge has given us Centrists of the World Unite!, David Howarth Being Liberal, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu What Happened to Liberal Democracy?

We are halfway through this parliament, barring Andy Burnham calling an early election. So it’s a good time to search our collective Liberal soul in a quest for clarity of purpose. 

We have 72 MPs, our largest parliamentary party in a century, yet remarkably little influence over the national conversation. If people still struggle to say what Liberal Democrats are for, perhaps we haven’t told a sufficiently compelling story.

I approached Wooldridge’s Centrists with some scepticism. To me, “centrists” implies the mushy middle between left and right, administered by nice people who want to be everybody’s friend/tactical voting choice.

Fortunately, that isn’t Wooldridge’s Liberalism. His is restless and insurgent. Historically, Liberals challenged aristocratic privilege, monopolies and inherited hierarchies. His complaint is that this bold tradition became associated instead with a cautious, managerial establishment.

His challenge is worth hearing. We are good at being reasonable, evidence-led and practical. But competence is not a destination. Liberalism should feel radical.

David Howarth’s Being Liberal explores the Liberal disposition: open-minded, suspicious of abuses of power, uncomfortable with hierarchy, treating people as individuals rather than categories, and accepting that reasonable people can disagree.

It captures something policy programmes miss. Liberalism isn’t only about what government does. It is about how we treat other people – and how we behave when given power ourselves.

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Lib Dem Women

Enough is enough: Women and girls deserve better

By Lib Dem Women | Tue 11th August 2026 - 8:58 am

 We are sick and tired of being told by those in power that tackling violence against women and girls is a priority, while women and girls continue to be failed by the very systems that are supposed to protect them.

The case of Simon Levy is yet another devastating reminder of what can happen when warning signs are missed, information is not properly acted upon, and agencies responsible for protecting the public fail to learn from previous mistakes.

This cannot continue to be treated as a series of isolated incidents.

For years, women have been told that lessons are being learned. We have heard commitments to tackling violence against women and girls, improving police responses, strengthening the criminal justice system and better protecting victims. Yet too often, the same failures emerge again and again.

By the time Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were murdered by a stranger in a London park, Levy had reportedly already been offending for years. By the time Sarah Everard was murdered by a serving Metropolitan Police officer, Levy had been offending for even longer. His first conviction came in 2021, yet further serious offences followed.

The question we have to ask is simple: when will enough be enough?

Women should not have to wait for another tragedy before institutions examine what went wrong. Nor should responsibility simply be passed between the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and probation services, with each failure treated as an individual mistake rather than part of a wider systemic problem.

The prosecution described Levy’s victims as vulnerable women, and told the court that Levy believed targeting women in these circumstances would make it more likely that he could get away with his crimes.

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Lord William Wallace

William Wallace writes: We should talk more about Liberalism 

By Lord William Wallace | Fri 7th August 2026 - 11:55 am

We’re Liberals and we’re democrats. So we should be talking much more about Liberal and democratic values, in public: that’s what makes us distinctive, what drives us into politics – and what attracts new people to the party.  When I first joined the party, everyone from Jo Grimond down talked about redefining liberalism and its implications for our society, our economy and our foreign policy.  Now we are too shy about reaching beyond daily press releases and restating the principles on which our politics are based.

Others are not so shy.  I’ve read defences of neo-liberalism in the Times and the Financial Times in the past two weeks, and no doubt the Telegraph, the Spectator and Unherd have offered similar thoughts.  The case for shrinking the state, for contracting out public services to private companies (which may turn out to be owned by other states, which our free marketeers somehow seem to find acceptable), for loosening regulation of markets, continues to form the conventional wisdom of the British commentariat, and Labour has not yet found a way of redefining the central issues of relations between society, economy and state.  Can we do better?

The preamble to our party constitution commits us ‘to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.’  The fundamental challenge for liberals is how to maintain such a balance in the face of rapid social and economic change, and against the background of international turmoil that threatens the liberal ideal of a peaceful world.  Community was far easier to maintain when most people lived and died within a few miles of where they had been born, and most worked for employers similarly local.  Liberty for the wealthy and educated has always been easier than for the marginal and poor.  Equality is a worthy principle, but very difficult to reconcile with liberty and with a market economy, let alone to promote at a time of rapid technological change.; practical liberals talk more of equality of opportunity and of limits to inequality.  Globalisation – the endpoint of the market economies and open borders that our Liberal predecessors worked to create – makes the preservation of stable communities and the prevention of a widening gulf between ultra-wealthy and struggling masses harder and harder to maintain.  Globalization concentrates power in multinational companies and private equity, far from the concept of ‘responsible capitalism’ with which liberalism grew.   Some liberals are now talking about wealth taxes; but that is only scratching the surface of the economic inequalities we face and will be well beyond the reach of American trillionaires and Russian oligarchs.

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Vince Cable

Vince Cable writes: The rebirth of council housing

By Vince Cable | Mon 20th July 2026 - 8:55 am

One of the few clearly articulated commitments which Andy Burnham has made is “the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period”. No sooner had he made the pledge than critics were lining up to pan it. The Economist, far from being Labour’s fiercest critic, described it as “the wrong fix” and the council house system as “wasteful, unfair and a barrier to growth”. Others have dismissed it as impractical, even if desirable, and a throwback to a bygone age.

It is not clear if the Burnham pledge is to use councils – either mayoral combined bodies or single district councils – as developers to boost housing supply of a variety of tenures; or specifically to build and own more houses for – below market -social rent. In the three decades after 1950 local authorities did both, at scale. The high point was 1968 with over 190,000 houses were built, and let, by UK councils and the 1970’s average was 130,000. I was a Glasgow city councillor in the heyday of council house building to replace slum dwellings in the early 1970’s and 5,000 a year was achieved in Glasgow alone (albeit that some were of poor quality and later demolished – like the Red Road development). With the advent of the Thatcher government, council house building largely stopped, 2 million council homes were sold at a discount under the Right to Buy policy and most new ‘social housing’ was provided by non-profit housing associations. In 2025, English councils delivered a mere 1,705 new council houses and started a negligible 300.

Nonetheless, 16% of the total housing stock still consists of social housing.

Much of the criticism of Burnham’s vision is a criticism of social housing. Tenants, who enjoy (implicitly) subsidised rents, are not necessarily in financial need: one third are not judged to need welfare benefits with a small number -usually well publicised in the popular press – enjoy relatively high incomes. There can be indefinite tenure and, in some instances, inheritance. Most council tenants are in a more favourable position than those who rent privately, often with insecure short-term tenancies, and – if they can find a landlord willing to house benefit recipients- rely on far-from-generous housing benefit ( capped by local Housing Allowance). And there are growing numbers of homeless in temporary accommodation or shipped out to councils with housing surpluses, far from work and family support networks. Such invidious comparisons do not however mean that we should have less social housing. Rather, more. Without more social housing, families on low and unstable incomes are forced out of more prosperous areas, where there is work; there is a rise in homelessness; and villages die for lack of trade and tradesmen. At the same time, rents can rise, gradually, to reduce the subsidy element (with housing benefit for those in need) and the option of sale is available for those who are able to progress to ownership.

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Victor Chamberlain

An early win for affordable housing – now let councils build

By Victor Chamberlain | Sun 19th July 2026 - 11:32 am

Less than two months into Southwark’s new Liberal Democrat-Green Joint Administration, we’ve secured an encouraging early win.

One of our first decisions was to support the legal challenge against the Mayor of London’s proposal to reduce the affordable housing threshold from 35% to 20%. That proposal has now been dropped. It is welcome news for everyone who believes London’s housing crisis will not be solved by making fewer homes affordable.

For us, this was about more than planning policy. It was about what kind of politics we want to practise.

Southwark faces one of the most acute housing crises in the country. Thousands of families remain on the housing waiting list. Thousands more are living in temporary accommodation. Young people who grew up here increasingly cannot afford to stay. Key workers are being priced out of the communities they serve.

Against that backdrop, reducing expectations for affordable housing was never the answer.

That doesn’t mean opposing development. Quite the opposite.

Liberal Democrats should be unapologetically pro-development. We need significantly more homes. We need private investment. We need housing associations, SME builders, institutional investors and especially councils all playing their part in increasing supply.

But development should be a means to deliver better communities, not an end in itself.

Too often, housing debates become polarised between those who oppose development altogether and those who argue that any development is good development. Neither reflects the challenge we face.

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Lord William Wallace

William Wallace writes: The case for higher taxes

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 15th July 2026 - 11:55 am

Liberal Democrats believe in a limited state and a market economy.  We are naturally cautious about how much of the economy should be taken by the state.  Our party started out strictly opposed to high taxes: ‘peace, retrenchment and reform’.  But the largest share of 19th century central taxation went on the army and navy, and Liberals opposed imperial expansion and geopolitical strategy.  At the local level Liberals taxed and spent, on the ‘municipal socialism’ of water, public health, gas, electricity and transport, against Tory opposition.  From W. E. Forster’s Education Act onwards, Liberals committed government to spend on improving the opportunities and welfare of British citizens; and under Keynes the party also committed to investment in public infrastructure and the promotion of economic growth.  We have even fought an election campaign, in 1997, on a commitment to raise income tax, against comments from Labour strategists to our manifesto team that ‘no-one will ever vote for a party that wants to raise taxes.’

Again in 2024, Labour campaigned cautiously on a manifesto that committed to holding down the three most important revenue-raising taxes, in spite of recognising the enormous backlog of public investment that had built up since 2008 and the challenges of our ageing society and rapid technological change.  The two years since then have further exposed the neglect of our armed services in the face of rising foreign threats and an unstable world.  The Conservative Party denies that there is a serious problem, and is still calling for tax cuts, suggesting that welfare spending that rose sharply when it was in government can be cut back enough to fund stronger defence at the same time. Burnham’s government thus faces some hard choices.  Either it cuts back again on public investment and research and development, as well as squeezing welfare, or it raises taxes to fund both stronger defence and rebuilding our economy.

How should we react, as a responsible opposition party?  The easiest line would be to attack Labour for betraying their manifesto, without saying what we would recommend instead.   The Tories have adopted a radically economic liberal line, assuming that the market will sort most things out and that cutting public spending – after 35 years of privatization and austerity (yes, the Blair Government did not entirely break with the Thatcherite model) – will leave more space for entrepreneurs to flourish.   But the free market model is now questioned even in the USA, while the hybrid Chinese model of market and state capitalism has unbalanced the global economy,  ‘Geoeconomics’ – the combination of political, industrial and economic objectives in state strategies, coherently in China and incoherently in the USA – has overturned many of the assumptions of economic globalization, strengthening the case for participation within a regional confederation, the EU, capable of bargaining with both.

Accepting the case for higher taxes now does not mean rolling over into uncritical support for the government.  It recognises that the country has to spend more on defence – not on more aircraft carriers or F-35 interceptors, but learning the lessons of the Ukraine war, sharing security with our neighbours and investing in homeland defence.  We should be calling for a major programme of tax reform, to sort out the horrifying complexity of our tax code and the loopholes it contains.  We should support welfare reform, under careful parliamentary scrutiny, recognising that housing allowances can only be brought down if more social housing is built and that paths to training and employment are vital elements in reducing the number of young people not in employment, education or training.

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Joe Nutt

ALDC’s By-Election Report 09.07.26

By Joe Nutt | Wed 15th July 2026 - 8:57 am

4 parallel white vertical lines on orange background ALDC logoSixteen principal authority by-elections took place across England, Wales and Scotland last week, with two taking place on Tuesday and 14 on Thursday. 

The Liberal Democrats were the main defenders this week, attempting to hold onto five seats. The Green Party and Plaid Cymru were defending three each, with Labour and the Independents defending two apiece, and Reform UK on just one this week. 

Triple race in Haslemere

Both of Tuesday’s principal authority by-elections were triggered by the sad passing of Liberal Democrat Cllr John Robini, who as well as sitting on both Waverley Borough Council and Surrey County Council, was also a town councillor in Haslemere. The Liberal Democrats won all three seats in the ensuing by-elections. 

An important side note on the Borough and County level races. Because of LGR, both Waverley and Surrey will cease to exist next year, with the unitary authority of West Surrey taking their place. Oli Leach, who stood in the Borough by-election, and Terry Weldon, who stood in the County by-election, both won election to the Haslemere ward on the new authority in the May 2026 local elections.

Here’s a closer look at the District and County level races. 

Waverley BC, Haslemere West 

In 2023, the Liberal Democrats took control of Waverley for the first time since 2007, with it being solid blue territory in the intervening years. 

The two-member ward of Haslemere West was only created at the last set of elections in 2023, where the Liberal Democrats won over 60% of the vote against the Conservatives and Labour. This time Labour did not stand a candidate, but the Green Party and Reform UK did this time. We stomped to victory with well over half of the vote. 

Lib Dem: 551 (58.6%, -5.4%)
Green Party: 164 (17.4%, new)
Conservative: 141 (15%, -7%)
Reform UK: 84 (8.9%, new)

Liberal Democrat HOLD

 

Surrey CC, Haslemere

The Conservatives have run Surrey County Council for decades, with a strong Lib Dem performance in 1993 the only time they have run the council without a majority. The last election in 2021 was at the peak of the Conservative party’s popularity under Boris Johnson. 

In the shadow elections for West Surrey this May though, the Liberal Democrats won majority control. 

The Haslemere seat has had a chaotic recent history: narrowly won by an Independent against the Conservatives in 2013. The seat turned blue in 2017 before a big swing to the Liberal Democrats meant we won it in 2021. The Conservatives lost even more ground this time as Reform UK and the Green Party also stood candidates. 

Lib Dem (Terry Weldon): 1,181 (47.8%, -2.2%)
Conservative: 797 (32.3%, -10.7%)
Green Party: 280 (11.3%, new)
Reform UK: 213 (8.6%, new)

Liberal Democrat HOLD

No Liberal Democrat candidates 

To start the reporting on Thursday’s races, let’s briefly analyse the two races where a Lib Dem candidate was not on the ballot paper.

South Lanarkshire, Larkhall 

Only one race in Scotland this week in South Lanarkshire caused by the sad passing of the incumbent Labour councillor. South Lanarkshire last went to the polls in 2022. Negotiations following that set of elections saw a Labour/Lib Dem minority administration come in. 

At the last election in Larkhall, the Liberal Democrats did stand a candidate who was knocked out in the sixth round of voting. Two seats were taken by Labour, and one apiece for the SNP and Conservatives. 

This time around, Reform UK managed to overcome the SNP on the fourth round of voting. Below are just the first preferences. 

Reform UK: 1150 (35.2%, new)
SNP: 975 (29.9%, +1%)
Labour: 799 (24.5%, -8.5%)
Conservative: 342 (10.5%, -14%)

Reform UK GAIN from Labour

Flintshire, Connoh’s Quay Central

At the last set of elections in Flintshire, only Independent and Labour candidates stood in the ward of Connah’s Quay Central, with both Independents prevailing by a large margin. While the Liberal Democrats did not stand a candidate in this by-election, all other major parties in Wales did, alongside a couple of Independents in this crowded field. Reform UK ultimately won by a big margin.

Reform UK: 256 (48.1%, new)
Labour: 101 (19%, -15.1%)
Plaid Cymru: 71 (13.3%, new)
Independent: 59 (11.1%, new)
Conservative: 21 (4%, new)
Independent: 13 (2.4%, new)
Green Party: 11 (2.1%, new)

Reform UK GAIN from Independent

More elections in Wales

The long running series of Welsh by-elections – caused by new Senedd members not legally being able to hold onto their council seats – sees another seven races take place this week. 

Pembrokeshire, Pembroke Dock Market

The last election in Pembrokeshire saw the Pembroke Dock Market ward being taken by an Independent in an uncontested election, who sadly passed away in April. This time, three Independents were joined by candidates from the Conservatives, Plaid Cymru, Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats. 

Pembrokeshire has a strong tradition of electing Independents, with over half the seats being taken by independent candidates in 2022. At this by-election though, the Conservatives scored a somewhat surprising win.  Thanks to Lee Herring for offering a Lib Dem choice. 

Conservative: 143 (36%, new)
Independent: 100 (25.2%, new)
Plaid Cymru: 79 (19.9%, new)
Reform UK: 48 (12.1%, new)
Independent: 11 (2.8%, new)
Lib Dem: 9 (2.3%, new)
Independent: 7 (1.8%, new)

Conservative GAIN from Independent

Flintshire, Argoed & New Brighton

The second race in Flintshire was the only Liberal Democrat defence in Wales this week in the ward of Argoed & New Brighton, where two of our four councillors on Flintshire Council come from. The race was triggered by the sad passing of Hilary McGuill. 

Last time both Lib Dems finished above individual Labour, Plaid Cymru, Independent and Green candidates. Both right-wing parties entered the race this time, but the Liberal Democrats fended off astrong Reform UK challenge to beat out every major party in Wales, with an increased share of the vote! Fantastic win from Cllr Faron Hadfield-Jones.

Lib Dem: 614 (39.8%, +3.8%)
Reform UK: 490 (31.7%, new)
Plaid Cymru: 191 (12.4% , – 2.2%)
Conservative: 113 (7.3%, new)
Labour: 113 (7.3%, -17.3%)
Green Party: 23 (1.5%, -8.8%)

Liberal Democrat HOLD

Vale of Glamorgan, Baruc 

In the Vale of Glamorgan, Plaid Cymru were looking to hold onto one of the three seats in Baruc. In 2022, they won all three seats on offer, with their Labour, Conservative and Green Party competitors running quite a close contest to be runners-up. 

This time, Reform UK joined the contest and finished in second place, though far behind an insurgent Plaid Cymru who increased their majority, mirroring a strong performance in this part of Wales in the 2026 Senedd elections. Thank you to Gabriela Ferguson for getting the Lib Dems on the ballot this time. 

Plaid Cymru: 856 (47.7%, +11.2%)
Reform UK: 429 (23.9%, new)
Conservative: 219 (12.2%, -8.2%)
Labour: 179 (10%, -15%)
Green Party: 90 (5%, -13.1%)
Lib Dem: 23 (1.3%, new)

Plaid Cymru HOLD

Llanrug, Gwynedd

Plaid Cymru’s had a reversal of fortunes in the Gwynedd seat of Llanrug, where they lost to an Independent. Gwynedd is another county with a strong Independent presence, finishing second in total number of councillors to Plaid in their stronghold. 

In 2022, Plaid Cymru won an uncontested election in Llanrug, along with many others throughout the county. At this by-election, the Independent and Plaid Cymru swallowed 95% of the vote share. Thank you to Linda Park for standing. 

Independent: 394 (57.4%, new)
Plaid Cymru: 262 (38.2%, -61.8%)
Reform UK: 17 (2.5%, new)
Conservative: 6 (0.9%, new)
Independent: 4 (0.6%, new)
Lib Dem (Linda Park) 3 (0.4%, new)

Independent GAIN from Plaid Cymru

Neath Port Talbot, Trebanos 

Only Plaid Cymru and Labour stood at the 2022 election in Trebanos. This time, it was contested by all six major parties in Wales. Unlike other contests last week in Wales where we ran paper candidates, we did fight a good campaign here with an excellent candidate in Hayley Davies. 

Plaid Cymru capitalised on their history here to pull off a big win. Of the other parties, we finished in third, just 11 votes behind Reform UK. This sets us up well to challenge them in next year’s local elections. 

Plaid Cymru: 223 (51.1%, -18.3%)
Reform UK: 88 (20.2%, new)
Lib Dem : 77 (17.7%, new)
Labour: 37 (8.5%, -22.1%)
Conservative: 7 (1.6%, new)
Green Party: 4 (0.9%, new)

Plaid Cymru HOLD

Splott, Cardiff

Finally, we go to the Welsh capital to wrap up the Welsh segment of this report. The election was triggered by the former Labour leader of Cardiff Council getting elected to the Senedd. Splott has been dominated by huge Labour majorities since 2012. 

The last time the ward was competitive was back in 2008 when the Liberal Democrats ran the council and had one of the three seats in Splott. 

In 2022, we finished behind Labour, a Green Party-Plaid Cymru unity team and the Conservatives. This time it was a Green Party challenger (no Plaid Cymru candidate) who came fairly close to beating Labour. Thank you to Rhys Husband for flying the Lib Dem flag here.

Labour: 765 (40.3%, +6.3%)
Green Party: 678 (35.7%, +18.4%)
Reform UK: 286 (15.1%, +2.1%)
Lib Dem: 114 (6%, -8%)
Conservative: 54 (2.8%, -0.1%)

Labour HOLD

 

Green Party Defences in London

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Lord William Wallace

William Wallace writes: What do Liberal Democrats have to offer the “left behind”?

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 1st July 2026 - 12:55 pm

Regional redistribution from the wealthy South-East to Britain’s poorer cities, towns and villages is a sensitive issue for Liberal Democrats.  When Britain left the EU and English regions and the devolved nations lost their share of EU regional funding (part of the balancing gains to the UK that the Leave campaign successfully ignored) the imbalance of investment and funding between the wealthy south-east and the rest of the UK tipped further.  Boris Johnson breezily promised to ‘level up’ the country, raising expectations that were shattered when he failed to follow through.  Andy Burnham may be more serious about reviving our poorer regions, and we as Liberal Democrats will have  to respond carefully.

I have had a number of difficult arguments with colleagues in the party about this over the years.  Liberal Democrats are above all local champions, standing up for neglected communities within the areas they represent.  When I and others have argued for larger regional transfers MPs and councillors have reminded us of the pockets of poverty in north and east London, Kent, Somerset and beyond.  Our parliamentary party spreads broadly across southern England, but sadly has few champions yet for Lancashire, Yorkshire or the North-East.  We’ve already heard some champions of London – not in our own party – protesting that ‘taking money from London’ would be a betrayal of Londoners’ interests.  It’s hard for some of our own to resist similar responses.

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Victor Chamberlain

“Build, baby, build” but don’t lower our ambitions on affordability

By Victor Chamberlain | Sun 28th June 2026 - 11:55 am

One of the first decisions taken by Southwark’s new Liberal Democrat-Green Joint Administration has been to back the legal challenge against the Mayor of London and MHCLG’s decision to reduce affordable housing requirements from 35% to 20%.

For me, as Southwark’s new Deputy Leader responsible for Strategic Planning, this was a straightforward decision.

Housing has always been one of the defining Liberal Democrat issues in our borough. For years we have challenged Labour’s failure to build enough genuinely affordable homes, called for stronger affordable housing requirements, and argued that local people deserve to be able to afford to live in the communities they grew up in.

Now that we have the opportunity to put those values into practice, we intend to do exactly that.

Southwark has 23,000 households on its housing waiting list and more than 4,300 households living in temporary accommodation, including more than 5,000 children. The shortage of genuinely affordable housing is the defining challenge facing our borough.

Affordable housing requirements are the benchmark against which councils work with and negotiate with developers. Lowering that benchmark makes it harder to secure genuinely affordable homes through the planning system and risks setting a weaker standard across London for years to come.

That is why Tower Hamlets, alongside Lewisham and Hackney, has launched a legal challenge. Southwark is proud to support it.

Some have suggested that councils should simply accept the Government and Mayor’s decision and get on with negotiating the best deal they can. I disagree. Liberal Democrats have never believed that local government should quietly accept decisions that make life worse for residents. If a decision from Whitehall and City Hall will leave London with fewer affordable homes, it is right to challenge it.

The decision also says something more fundamental about Labour’s approach to housing.

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