Liberal Democrats

TIM WALKER, a one-time parliamentary candidate for the centre party, on how members feel about its former leader, now one of the social network’s senior figures

Boris Johnson’s Tories suffered a humiliating by-election defeat as the Liberal Democrats scored a historic win in Chesham and Amersham. Lib Dem Sarah Green is the country’s newest MP after winning the seat, which had been a Conservative stronghold since its creation in 1974. Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said the result sent […]

The Liberal Democrats have claimed the Chesham and Amersham by-election is “neck and neck” as voters go to the polls in a by-election for the historically Conservative safe seat. The constituency in Buckinghamshire has been held by the Tories since its creation in 1974, but the Liberal Democrats have insisted it could “go down to […]

The education recovery commissioner has resigned in a row over the government’s £1.4 billion catch-up fund on what school leaders deemed a “deeply disappointing” and “truly awful day”. Sir Kevan Collins has quit after just four months in the role as catch-up tsar as he warned the government’s package “falls far short of what is […]

Former North Norfolk MP and senior Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb has admitted he has let his membership lapse over the party’s Brexit positioning. Lamb, who was the runner-up in the leadership contest in 2015, has told the Politico news website that he holds no grudges with his former colleagues but was heavily critical of the […]

The pandemic might finally be giving the party a purpose, but it will also highlight the tensions of its dual heritage of economic liberalism and social democracy For the first time since the last election the Liberal Democrats are getting some national attention. In his unqualified opposition to vaccine passports and some of the other pandemic constraints […]

The many chapters in the career of Shirley Williams tell the story of post-war Britain For all her recent reputation as a well-loved grandmother of British politics, Shirley Williams was not unfamiliar with its sharper edges. At a 1959 rally in support of independence for Nyasaland (later Malawi) at the Royal Albert Hall, racist hecklers […]

Nick Clegg has said the EU has let itself and millions of Europeans down over its troubled Covid vaccine rollout. This comes as a new poll shows two-thirds of adults believe being outside the EU helped the UK’s vaccination programme to succeed. Clegg told LBC radio he thought “the EU has let itself down, more importantly […]

Shirley Williams, the former Labour cabinet minister who broke away from the party to form the SDP, has died aged 90. In a statement Lib Dem leader Ed Davey paid tribute to Baroness Williams of Crosby as a “true trailblazer” who had inspired millions. As a Labour minister, Lady Williams, served in the governments of […]

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey are calling on Boris Johnson to cut taxes for small firms as he kicks off the party’s local elections campaign. Sir Ed wants the government to slash national insurance contributions for small firms to help aid the country’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and spark a recruitment boom. In […]

Dominic Raab has been accused of breaking the law over his decision not to offer MPs a vote on shrinking the UK’s aid budget. A group of 28 MPs from seven different political parties wrote to Raab claiming his plans to abandon the 0.7% of GDP spend on aid would break a law instituted by David Cameron, […]

Independence for Scotland would be like Brexit on a rocket to Mars, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has said. Speaking at the UK Liberal Democrat spring conference, Rennie said now is not the moment for the “long, divisive, argumentative, exhausting, all-consuming event” of another referendum on the issue. SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has […]

Ahead of a crucial vote on Europe at the Lib Dem’s spring conference, LAYLA MORAN outlines the party’s position on Brexit. I don’t think many Liberal Democrat members will easily forget the crushing disappointment we felt when we saw the results of the referendum. I am sure many of you, like me, shed a tear […]

The Liberal Democrats are pushing ahead with a pledge to overhaul the UK’s asylum seeker laws and boost refugee intake numbers at this weekend’s party conference. Members will be asked to vote on boosting the UK’s refugee intake to 10,000 applicants a year and strengthen family reunion rights.   A motion being brought forward by former Lib […]

SNP plans for Scottish independence would be a “Brexit 2.0” that would harm the NHS and cost jobs, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has insisted. With Scottish parliament elections due to take place in May, the Lib Dem said voters were now “weeks from an election that could determine the fate of the United […]

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has claimed that his party is a “better” choice for voters in Scotland than either Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP or Boris Johnson’s Conservatives. With the Scottish parliament election due to take place in May, Sir Ed is making his pitch to voters north of the border in a speech to the Scottish […]

The Liberal Democrats have offered to work with Scottish Labour’s new leader to build a “federal UK”. Anas Sarwar won the top job on Saturday, beating Monica Lennon and taking 57.6% of the vote. The Scottish Lib Dem leader congratulated the new leader and offering to work in partnership. Willie Rennie said: “I would like […]

Vote Leave turned Brexit into its own religion to capture supporters, a recent study by the universities of Birmingham and Warwick has found. Researchers said slogans such as “take back control” used the NHS as the country’s Holy Grail that could be rescued from European forces threatened by Britain’s unique historical place in the world. They also said […]

The future of the NHS cannot be separated from the future of social care. And on this there is a scandalous lack of vision from ministers, says Lib Dem leader ED DAVEY. The Covid pandemic has reminded us all of something Liberal Democrats have long understood: that caring for people’s health doesn’t stop at the […]

Party leader Ed Davey talks to MATT WITHERS about this burning issue, why social care is his top priority and the Lib Dems’ controversial Brexit policy. Here’s a pretty non-scientific experiment into the current state of what was until very recently the third force in British politics. Try typing “What is the point of the […]

The Liberal Democrats are not the party of rejoining the European Union, Sir Ed Davey has said. The Lib Dem leader said that whilst his party are “very pro-European” and want to see the closest possible relationship with the EU following Brexit, they are “not a rejoin party”. Sir Ed added that he believes the […]

Ed Davey on why he is rejecting Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal – and why his Liberal Democrat colleagues will join him in doing so. In a week when the Prime Minister interrupted the holidays to finally announce the long overdue terms of the UK’s future relationship with the EU, you would think he would be […]

The Liberal Democrats have confirmed that they will vote against Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union. In a statement, the party described the Bill as “threadbare” and claimed it is “bad for jobs, business, security and our environment”. A reasoned amendment to the Bill has also been lodged by the party which […]

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey indicated the party is likely to vote against the Brexit trade deal with the European Union. He told BBC Breakfast: “If the details turn out to be what we’re hearing, we cannot support it. This will be so bad for British business, so bad for families to mean they’re […]

The Brexit deal we end up with won’t be worth the paper it’s written on, and Boris Johnson is to blame, writes LUISA PORRITT, the Liberal Democrat candidate for mayor of London. Like many Brits, I have been on a streaming spree of The Crown over lockdown. For those who haven’t been watching, the latest series […]

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has warned Boris Johnson that his party may not back the government’s plans for a tiered system of coronavirus restrictions to replace England’s national lockdown. Increasing pressure amid a potentially large Tory rebellion, Sir Ed wrote to prime minister Boris Johnson to say the 11 Lib Dem MPs would […]

Ministers have been accused of leaving Northern Ireland businesses ‘in distress’ after failing to answer 60 questions about post-Brexit trading rules. A business leader slammed ministers for leaving firms in the dark with just six weeks to go until the end of the transition period. “We asked 67 questions at the beginning of the summer,” Manufacturing NI’s […]

Roy Jenkins – the man that helped Britain join the European Community. This week sees the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roy Jenkins, one of the outstanding British statesmen of the post-war period. He was one of the greatest reforming home secretaries in history, arguably the most successful chancellor of the exchequer since the […]