Another year of progress (LDN#204)
Welcome to Lib Dem Newswire #204 and, first, a little favour please. You may have seen some of the press coverage about the horrendous behaviour that Lib Dem councillors and others have been on the receiving end of in Swale from racists and extremists. There has even been more and worse than has appeared in the press.
So a quick request for some seasonal goodwill to be sent their way, by making a donation right now directly to the Swale Lib Dem team.
They are doing a great and brave job standing up for our values. Let’s send them some extra goodwill.
In happier news, congratulations to our councillors newly elected since the last edition and their agents: Bryony Hartley, Robert Marshall, Alex Deacon, Steve Middleton, Callum Robertson, Fran McElhone, Steve Hunt, Matthew Prosser, Dave Walker and Clare Burton-Johnson.
Best wishes,
Mark
P.S. If you haven’t had a chance to read the previous regular edition of Lib Dem Newswire it is online here: Learning from County Durham.
Labour is getting it wrong on devolution
Here’s what I said in the Second Reading debate in the House of Lords on Labour’s devolution legislation - including highlighting how they’ve even backed away from releasing the controlling centralised hand of Whitehall over… cattle-grids!
Another year of progress
Here is my latest - and final - report for Liberal Democrat members and supporters. These reports also appeared on the party website.
Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year
Once again, we end a year with more Liberal Democrat councillors than at the start, with more Lib Dem council leaders than at the start and with a greater spread of Lib Dem candidates across the country outside target wards. Both in the areas where we can most immediately win, and across the country more broadly in terms of candidates, canvassing and delivery, we’ve taken big steps forward.
We have now made net gains in the May rounds of local elections seven times in a row, the best winning streak in our party’s history, and we’re in sight of even beating the benchmark set during the heyday of the SDP/Liberal Alliance.
Our continued progress in local council by-elections since May means we are the only party other than Reform posting significant gains (and it’s worth noting that the Greens are pretty much only treading water, even after Zack Polanski’s election).
Many people across the country, volunteers and staff, deserve the thanks and praise for those achievements. Last time I talked about the progress in County Durham and what the whole party can learn from it. This time, it is worth calling out the success in Devon where our recent by-election gain in Seaton makes it 13 (!) by-elections won this year in the county - as well as making gains and becoming the largest party in the May county council elections. Most impressive.
And that’s a wrap
Barring any last-minute crisis, the thirty-seventh Federal Board meeting I chaired a couple of weeks back was the last in my time as Federal Party President, with Josh Babarinde taking over from 1st January.
So a huge thanks to all the staff and colleagues on the Board who worked so hard to make a success of our meetings, and the Board’s work between meetings too. A particular thanks to my Vice Chairs during this time - initially Elaine Bagshaw and Jeremy Hargreaves, and then Jeremy along with Jenni Lang and Amna Ahmed.
The very best wishes to the new Board and to Josh too.
Chairs and Vice Chairs
Various other committee chairs and vice chairs have started being elected following the internal elections. On Federal Conference Committee (FCC), Nick Da Costa has been re-elected Chair, with his two Vice Chairs being Chris Adams and Eleanor Kelly.
The three Vice Chairs of Federal Policy Committee (FPC) are now Mohsin Khan, Helen Morgan and Lucy Nethsingha.
Good luck to them all.
Churn rate in Federal Committee elections
I previously reported on the Board’s discussion on whether to submit a proposal to Conference to expand the use of term limits in the party’s main round of internal elections for Federal Party posts. Looking at the churn rate in recent rounds of elections, we concluded that there was already a substantial turnover in people each time, and found very little evidence that term limits would significantly alter things.
With the results of this year’s round of elections now out, it is possible to look at the churn rate for this time around:
Federal Conference Committee (FCC): 50% of posts filled by people being re-elected, other 50% were not elected to the committee three years ago
Federal Policy Committee (FPC): 20% filled by people being re-elected
Federal Board (FB): 0% filled by people being re-elected
Federal Council (FC): 29% filled by people being re-elected
It is hard to look at those figures and conclude there is a problem with the same people just being re-elected time after time.
Five Lib Dem peers appointed
As the party’s website reports:
Three new Liberal Democrat appointments to the House of Lords have been announced: former MP and Children’s Minister Sarah Teather, the party’s Chief Executive Mike Dixon and Ed Davey’s Chief of Staff Rhiannon Leaman. Two Liberal Democrat hereditary peers, Dominic Addington and John Russell, have also been granted life peerages so they can continue their important contributions to Parliament after the Hereditary Peers Bill passes.
Congratulations to all five, who I very much look forward to seeing play an important role in the Lords in the years to come, until, of course, we manage to win a vote for Lords reform.
Party Awards
Nominations are open for our next Party Awards, which will be handed out by Josh Babarinde at our Spring Federal Conference in March. But you can nominate someone now, and all the categories are detailed on the party website.
These are a great way to recognise some of our amazing colleagues, so please do take a look.
And finally…
Know someone who is interested in the Lib Dems but not yet ready to join or volunteer? They can sign up for emails from the party, including a monthly report on what is happening in Parliament: www.libdems.org.uk/email-updates
Podcast: Have people become too critical of Labour’s 2024 general election campaign?
Two of the authors of a new book, The British General Election of 2024, joined me for the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts. Among the topics we discuss are whether Labour’s post-election slump has made people too critical of their election campaign, whether the Conservatives could have saved themselves and lessons for the Lib Dems.
You can take a listen in your favourite podcast app, as well as on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or the web.
🎧Find all the episodes of Never Mind The Bar Charts here.
📟 Sign up for a dedicated email notification each time a new episode appears here.
NHS suffers as Labour rolls over: Lib Dems in the news
Health and social care
Helen Morgan on drug prices going up for the NHS: “Trump demanded these pay rises to put Americans first and our government rolled over.”
Economy and cost of living
Rise in unemployment should be a wake-up call for the government.
Daisy Cooper on polling showing people cutting back on presents for Christmas: “It’s depressing to think that this time of Christmas cheer will be dampened for huge numbers of Brits. This Government is allowing a cost-of-giving crisis to grip our country and refusing to take action to fix it.”
Environment
John Russell on how cleaning up dumped waste can trigger a tax bill: “I strongly encourage the Treasury to take an urgent, fresh, cold hard look at these regulations.”
Europe
Ed Davey on the Lib Dems winning a customs union vote in Parliament: “Today was a historic victory for the Liberal Democrats – winning a vote in Parliament to finally end the economic nightmare of the Conservatives’ broken Brexit deal.” It’s easy to fritter away time hitting pause and rewind to watch the facial reactions of various Lib Dem MPs in the BBC’s clip. (Fun fact: Nigel Farage was absent from the vote, so it is thanks to his absence that the bill got through this stage.)
Susan Murray welcomes the UK’s return to the Erasmus scheme.
Education
Munia Wilson says the government “must not solve this [SEND] crisis by raiding the budgets of mainstream schools.”
Housing
Lib Dem Sutton are increasing the number of council homes in the town centre.
Lib Dems deliver new social homes for St Albans families.
Local government
Zöe Franklin on Labour putting off elections, again: “Democracy delayed is democracy denied.”
Lib Dem Windsor & Maidenhead invests in its first home for young people, cutting its reliance on costly external placements.
Thousands of trees planted in Lib Dem-run Chelmsford.
International issues
Lib Dems call for inquiry into hostile foreign state interference to include US.
Other issues
Jane Dodds secures funding for extra train service (on one of the UK’s most beautiful railway routes).
Jess Brown-Fuller calls David Lammy’s plans to curb jury trials “completely disgraceful.”
Ed Davey: “Keir Starmer needs to stand up for the BBC against Trump’s outrageous legal threat and protect licence fee payers from being hit in the pocket.” You can sign and share the petition: www.libdems.org.uk/bbc.
Marie Goldman: “Imagine being turned away from a bathroom, hospital, or cinema for ‘not looking female enough’. The leaked EHRC guidance could do just that.”
People news
Lambeth Lib Dem leader Donna Harris is stepping down.
Other party news
The full election results for the recent Federal Party elections are up on the party website. Feast on the STV vote transfer details here.
📲 You can get more updates like the above in real time through my WhatsApp updates three to five times a week. Sign up details here.
Has Reform hit a ceiling?
In case you missed them first time around, here are some of my blog posts and assorted pieces since the last LDN:
Has Reform hit a ceiling, or could its support go higher?
A letter to the Daily Telegraph asking why a woman gets her appearance discussed while a man did not.
A warning about political predictions.
And one from the archives:
Forgotten Liberal heroes: (Lord) Desmond Banks.
What the polls are saying
Issues
Votes
Leaders
For more details on both the above tables, and for updates in-between editions of LDN, take a look on my website.
What does the data show about Lib Dem general election results?
Selections news
Westminster selections since last time have included Louis Adam for Kenilworth and Southam, Sophie Crossthorn for Sheffield Hallam, Thomas Gravatt for Romsey and Southampton North, Matthew Green for South Shropshire, Andrew Hollyer for York Outer and Chelsea Whyte for Runnymede and Weybridge.
The latest Westminster constituency to advertise for selection is Christchurch, while selections are also underway for four directly-elected Mayors in London.
See all the Liberal Democrat Westminster PPCs selected and publicly announced so far here.
Council by-elections round-up
Council by-elections for principal authorities since last time have included a Lib Dem hold in the North West, another Lib Dem gain in Geoffrey Cox’s constituency, Lib Dem gains in Devon and Scotland and another hold in the North West.
The net seat changes in those contests are Reform +9, Lib Dem +1, Green +/-0, Plaid +/-0, SNP -1, Independent/Others -1, Conservatives -3 and Labour -5.
This brings the total net seat changes since the last May local elections to Reform +61, Lib Dem +19, Green +2, Plaid +/-0, SNP -2, Independent/Others -10, Conservatives -25 and Labour -45. For more details, see my table of net seat changes since the last May local elections.
Lib Dems win as many seats as Labour, Conservative and Greens combined
Overall, the pattern across the year is one of two-party politics in council by-elections… with the two parties being Lib Dem and Reform:
Other changes
An independent councillor has joined the Lib Dems in Windsor & Maidenhead, while a Lib Dem there has been suspended and is sitting as an independent. Another Lib Dem has been suspended on Highland Council. A Lib Dem has switched to independents in Mid Sussex and another in Surrey Heath.
A town councillor has joined the Lib Dems in Wokingham and one has left in Oswestry.
Can you help?
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And finally…
Ed Davey’s Christmas card is a hit.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it to a friend or share it online:
Thank you and best wishes,
Mark
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