Lib Dems should target becoming largest party in local government (LDN#212)
Welcome to Lib Dem Newswire #212, which expands on why the Liberal Democrats should set - and then work seriously to hit! - a target of being the largest party in local government.
First, though, congratulations to the new Lib Dem councillors since last time - Pat Hackett, Gary Taylor, Colin Millichap, Andrea Pellegram, Naomi Bloomer, Terry Weldon, Oli Leach, Alex Davies, Tyler Wragg, Sheena Morrison, Sarah King and Rob Packard, and to their agents.
As usual, this edition includes a section on Parliamentary selections, both those recently completed and new ones being advertised. It’s great to see quite how many seats are currently open for applications; there’s been a big pick-up in the pace of these and it’s by no means only obvious target seats which are selecting. And if all that makes you interested in becoming a Parliamentary candidate, see the information here.
Best wishes,
Mark
P.S. If you haven’t yet had time to read it, last time’s edition is available online: Lessons from 1936 and 2026 for the Liberal Democrats (LDN#211).
What would it take for Capita to be banned from government contracts?
Capita missed the promised end of June deadline for sorting out problems with the civil service pension scheme, a crisis that I’ve covered before.
As a result of this latest failure, the issue was discussed again in the House of Lords. I took the opportunity to ask at what point Capita’s failures might result in the firm being ruled out from future contracts, bearing in mind the big new contract the government awarded it after the pension fiasco had come to light.
English Party reform finally happens
For decades people in the Liberal Democrats have been talking about reforming the English Party. But there’s always been an excuse found to put it off, even after various reviews previously recommending reform - it’s not quite the right package being proposed, we need just a bit more time, let’s think further on the details, and so on.
So it was great to see the English Council voting for major reforms to the English Party in late June. The final vote was 118-16 for a package which includes abolishing the English Council itself and moving to a new structure that is much more focused on being the collective voice of regional parties, with the officer roles in future elected by all members in England.
Congratulations to Caroline Pidgeon on successfully chairing the meeting despite Zoom choosing that day to roll out an update which meant people variously lost the ability to turn cameras on, raise their hands or use the online poll (!). She calmly filled in all the gaps as things were sorted and took us all through backup options so that everyone was still able to vote after a long and detailed debate. (If she fancies a career change at any point, a daytime continuity announcer career on the radio awaits!)
Congratulations too to Chris White for leading the key consultation and drafting work, with Ruth Dombey and others.
For decades people have talked of major reforms to the English Party but when it’s come to the vote they have failed or been put off, but not this time around. It’s quite the track record Caroline is creating as English Party chair - very impressive!
(There were votes on three amendments, with the ‘tidying up’ amendment passing 129-3 and the financial controls one passing 125-11. The other, to change the make-up of the new English Party Board, was lost 43-88.)
Brexit: The Uncivil War – the TV drama with Benedict Cumberbatch
Episodes of my podcast with Cory Hazlehurst since last time have included one taking a look at the TV dramatisation of the Brexit referendum by James Graham:
To mark ten years since the Brexit referendum, Cory and Mark talk about James Graham’s TV movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Brexit: The Uncivil War. They talk about the ability of Mark Gatiss to chew scenery without actually being on screen, how the story the film tells of how Leave won has aged rather badly, and Cory has a rant about the most shambolic doorknocking encounter he’s ever seen.
You can view Brexit: The Uncivil War on IMDb here.
Cory’s email newsletter is Paperback Rioter and Mark has a family of email newsletters.
Our theme tune is “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) and licensed under the Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
As well as listening here, you can also listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or in your favourite podcast app.
Or if you aren’t sure, check out the film’s trailer first:
We have also done the Iranian football-meets-politics film, Offside, as well as looking at football-meets-politics more generally.
Sign up to the Political Fictions email list
If you follow politics and love political drama - on screen, on the page, or on stage - Political Fictions is the podcast for you. Each episode, I join Cory Hazlehurst to explore the portrayals of politics in fiction. Subscribe to our email list and we’ll let you know when each new episode drops:
Why we should aim to be the largest party in local government
As Party President Josh Babarinde has set out, a consultation is being run on the party’s strategy, with a motion due to be debated at our autumn conference in Brighton.
The motion contains this point, building on a suggestion I made:
Become the largest party in local government in England, and one of the two largest parties in local government across the United Kingdom, by investing in year-round local campaigning, candidate development, council group support, regional capacity, and the structures needed to fight new unitary and large-area elections effectively.
Given the past history of party strategies and leaders calling for us to win elections, sometimes with specific targets and sometimes without, it might be easy to gloss over this as just another ‘let’s win some stuff’ wording. But that would be to miss the importance of setting such a target - and then taking it seriously.
One reason is that while local government is very much part of the Lib Dem psyche - hence the jokes about Lib Dems pointing at potholes - it is also often put to one side when it comes to running the party. Our policy making processes, for example, are overwhelmingly geared around what governments - in Westminster, Edinburgh and Cardiff - should do, rather than around what the actual policy implementation decisions are that Lib Dem council leaders are taking around the country day in, day out. It can often feel like we’re keener to spend time debating what a second-term Lib Dem government should do rather than what policies are most needed for those exercising power in town halls tomorrow.
So taking such a target seriously - not just as an applause line in a motion, but as something that is part of a strategy which the whole party sets about implementing - would be far from trivial.
It’s also the right target to set for a pair of reasons. Most obviously, local government matters and we should be ambitious about our future success. (The wording above differentiates between England and the UK because we’re much closer to being the largest party in England than we are across the UK, so a staged approach makes that ambition also realistic.)
But it is also a way of tying together several different strands of our party’s growth. We can only achieve that objective if we do really well in local council elections in areas that are target seats for Westminster, Holyrood and Senedd contests. But we can also only achieve that objective if we make progress more widely too.
In other words, it’s a target that would tie together those two challenges rather than treat them as rivals for attention and priority.
That is the approach that has consistently served us best in recent years, such as the focus on standing more candidates in council elections (good for our wider growth) which then delivers election season coverage about how we are a large and credible party (good for our target seats).
Which is why it is an approach we should continue, with a new and ambitious local government target.
A summer reading suggestion…
Polling UnPacked is available from Bookshop.org (independent bookshops), Waterstones, Amazon (including Kindle version) or direct from the publisher.
Change the voting system, Andy Burnham: Lib Dems in the news
The key stories
Change the voting system before the next election, Ed Davey urges Andy Burnham.
It’s time for a new deal with Europe.
James MacCleary: to fund the investment in national security we need, Andy Burnham should steal our defence bonds policy.
Munira Wilson: “FIFA is really beyond the pale now in terms of corruption”.
Lib Dem campaign to ‘axe 100 pieces of red tape’ and get Britain growing again.
Alistair Carmichael welcomes major win for coastguard volunteers.
Jane Dodds to vote against budget unless money is found to help protect healthcare.
Local government action
Liberal Democrats deliver major affordable housing boost in Ascot.
Other people and party news
Five new Liberal Democrat peers appointed.
Sheila Ritchie has been reappointed an Electoral Commissioner.
Julie Smith elected ALDE Vice President.
Talk of a new Lib Dem think tank.
Jamie Stone: “Over the next few months, I’ll be taking time away to recover from heart surgery.”
The Lib Dem group in the House of Lords is now on LinkedIn and continues to be on Bluesky.
📲 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.
Improving the regulation of lobbying
In case you missed them first time around, here are some of my blog posts and assorted pieces since the last LDN:
Political history points against early general elections.
Government talks tough but often moves slowly on foreign interference in politics.
The DVLA’s problem with number plates.
Leadership plotting, in real life and in fiction.
And one from the archives:
What the polls are saying
Issues
Votes
Leaders
For more details on both voting intention and party leader ratings, and for updates in-between editions of LDN, take a look on my website.
Nigel Farage versus Count Binface
Check out The Week in Polls to see how Nigel Farage and Count Binface compare in the polls, what people think of the Reform UK leader’s actions and an extra reason to be wary of Clacton vox pops:
Selections news
Selections since last time have included incumbent MPs Sarah Gibson in Chippenham and Steve Darling in Torbay, along with Barry Holliday in Derbyshire Dales and Dan Boatright-Greene in West Worcestershire.
Richard Kilpatrick was also selected for the Greater Manchester Mayor by-election.
The Westminster constituencies currently advertising to select a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate include North East Somerset & Hanham, Altrincham & Sale West, Stretford & Urmston and 10 constituencies in Wales.
See all the Liberal Democrat Westminster PPCs selected and publicly announced so far here.
Council by-elections round-up
Council by-elections since last time have seen large numbers of seats changing hands, including a Lib Dem gain in Wales, a gain from the Greens from third place in London, and a win in Calum Miller’s seat.
But the net changes in seats since last time were Reform +7, SNP +2, Conservative +2, Green +/-0, Plaid -1, Lib Dem -2, Independent/Others -2 and Labour -6.
For more details, including the cumulative change since May, see my table of net seat changes since the last May local elections.
Other changes
A councillor has returned to Lib Dem ranks in Oxfordshire. But a councillor has been expelled by the Lib Dems on Highland Council and one suspended in Rutland, as one has been in Cardiff. Another has stepped down from the Lib Dem group for health reasons in Fareham.
Can you help?
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And finally…
One of the candidates for the Clacton Parliamentary by-election lists their home address as “in Australia” and is unhappy with Wikipedia: “he has exposed the fact that somebody internal to Wikipedia is deleting his page every time he runs for office”. (“Internal to Wikipedia” makes this sound like some secret insider plot when, more likely, it is simply volunteer editors thinking he doesn’t meet the notability criteria for a Wikipedia page.)
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it to a friend or share it online:
Thank you and best wishes,
Mark
Note: Links to books in the newsletter are usually affiliate links that generate a commission on sales made.