Mathew Hulbert

Mathew on Monday

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 28th September 2026 - 8:02 pm

Brighton was wonderful but I’m still left asking: what are the Liberal Democrats for?

There is much I love about Lib Dem Conference.

Brighton last week reminded me why. Seeing friends and colleagues from across the country, some of whom I only ever see at Conference, was wonderful. There were fascinating fringe meetings, including the one on Assisted Dying that I was honoured to chair on behalf of Dignity in Dying, passionate debates and the reassuring experience of spending a few days among people who, whatever part of the party they’re from, share a belief in liberalism, internationalism and social justice.

But I returned home with the same nagging question I took to Brighton: what, exactly, is our party trying to become? To be fair, the party knows it has a problem. The new party strategy talks about the need for a clearer national Liberal identity and a distinctive message. Conference itself was full of conversations about what-and who-we are for.

Yet I’m not convinced our gathering in Brighton provided the answer. Are we becoming a sort of One Nation Conservative Party, offering a home go moderate former Tories who are repelled by the direction of their old party?

Are we returning (as I’d certainly prefer) to our radical, centre-left traditions, talking about inequality, redistribution, public services, Europe and constitutional reform? Or are we, as I suspect, still rather vulnerable to that oldest accusations against Liberals: that we face both ways?

Ed Davey’s announcement of £17 billion of income tax cuts, funded through the growth the party believes would follow from rejoining the Single Market and a customs union, illustrated the dilemma perfectly. There was plenty there I welcomed – particularly the much stronger argument for rebuilding Britain’s broken relationship with Europe but what bigger story are we telling about the society we want to create?

And there is another question our party must answer: what are we saying to urban, Labour-facing England? Our spectacular advances against the Conservatives transformed the party’s parliamentary strength and should be celebrated.

But Liberalism cannot become something practised only or mainly in prosperous southern constituencies where the Tories are the principal opponent.

What is our offer to Leicester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Newcastle, to name but a few? What do we have to say to people in communities where inequality, struggling public services, poor transport connections and insecure work shape everyday life (which, of course, includes pockets in the South too)?

Our own strategy now talks explicitly about expanding in the North, Midlands and urban Britain. Good. But organisational strategy, important though it surely is, isn’t enough. We need a story to tell, too.

For me, that begins with confident Liberalism: internationalist, socially just, decentralising, environmentally ambitious, unapologetically pro European and determined to redistribute, power, wealth and opportunity.

Brighton reminded me just how much I love this party and its people.

Sadly it didn’t exactly answer my question about where we’re going next.

Christine Jardine deserved better

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Elin Kingston

You can’t elect a Community Champion without a community

By Elin Kingston | Mon 28th September 2026 - 3:27 pm

As Liberal Democrats, we pride ourselves as being “local champions”.

It’s on every Focus leaflet, in every direct mail. Our spatulas, fitbits and our friends and family who are oft abandoned in favour of doorknocking on a Saturday morning can attest to the fact that we are community people who believe in community politics.

But how can you be a champion of a community that doesn’t exist?

This is the question that has been running around my head after speaking to hundreds of residents in my ward of Waterloo and South Bank, the most central ward in London, in the lead up to May’s elections.

I remember meeting seven people on the same estate who had the same long-standing disrepair issue. But they’d never met each other. Young professionals living in the area for under a year and unable to name the street parallel to theirs before they’re priced out. Families living in social housing longing to move out because the nursery their kids go to was closing.

And those were just the people you could meet – there’s a whole hidden electorate behind intercoms and concierges, inaccessible to the humble community champion. Inhabiting space without any concept of where they are, who they live with, or what the problems may be.

I missed out on being elected in Waterloo and South Bank by 86 votes.

Josh Mitte and Patrick Stillman have both already written on LDV about why campaigns like mine came up short across London. Much of what they say is absolutely spot on, and if we are to win in new places we must have another layer of messaging on top of being a “community champion”. (The Greens won votes in my ward with a paper candidate because their message didn’t rely on locality. “Hope” is a pretty universal concept.)

But though it is no longer sufficient, it is absolutely still essential that we Lib Dems continue to be community champions.

As Tim Farron said in our 2024 General Election Review:

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Leon Duveen

Words matter, use them carefully!

By Leon Duveen | Mon 28th September 2026 - 1:23 pm

There are any number of slogans linked to the Palestine / Israel conflict that mean different things to different people. Accordingly we must be incredibly careful in how we speak. Our words can have a different meaning for those who hear them from the meaning we intended to convey.

 Some well known examples spring to mind. 

Those who shout “Free Palestine” at demonstrations, marches or concert stages may well mean a free Palestine alongside a secure Israel. However, to many Jewish Israelis and British Jews these words are heard as a call for an attack on all Jewish residents between the Mediterranean and the Jordan and their expulsion from there to any country that might take them in. 

Another phrase “Am Israel Chai” (עם ישראל חי – The People of Israel Live) can sound like a war cry against the Palestinian people.  But when it is shouted by a Palestinian Israeli playing for the Israeli national football team, it takes on a quite different implication.

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 27th September 2026 - 10:50 am

Canada and Europe

Liberal Democrats around the world cheered when Mark Carney and Ursula Von der Leyen announced that Canada would become an associate member of the European Union.

It was the first substantive circle in Carney’s Venn Diagram diplomacy.

And it made sense. Canada is a liberal democracy governed by the rule of law, international norms and respect for human rights and individual liberties. The EU is the same. The problem is that Europe is in danger of changing dramatically.

The populist right is on the rise across Europe and it is especially dangerous on Europe’s two key states—nuclear power France and economic engine Germany.

This week in elections in the German Lander of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,  the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) trounced the CDU—the senior partner in Germany’s ruling coalition. The AfD also did well in elections in Berlin and the latest opinion polls show it to be the most popular party with 27 percent of  the vote.

The AfD leadership has links with Neo-Nazis. It wants to end German support for Ukraine and improve relations with Russia. They argue that climate change is a hoax; are Euro-sceptics; believe that Germany’s Nazi past should be re-examined in a positive light; want to expel hundreds of thousands of immigrants and question the value of NATO and the rule of law that political leaders like Mark Carney are trying desperately to preserve.

Across the border in France far-right perennial presidential candidate Marine Le Pen mirrors many of the AfD’s policies with a French twist. Ms Le Pen is projected to win 34 percent of the vote in the  first round of presidential elections next April. This is far ahead of any of the other candidates and makes her the favourite to be the next occupant of the Elysee Palace.

The success of the populist right is mirrored in Italy where Giorgia Meloni governs with the Brothers of Italy. In Austria the Freedom Party is at 37 percent in the opinion polls. Vox in Spain is holding steady at 17-19 percent share of the projected vote; Geert Wilders PVV remains a force in the Netherlands and Sweden’s Sweden Democrats stand at 19  percent in the latest opinion polls. Britain’s Reform Party has dropped  from the lead position after allegations of illegal funding, but it still commands the support of 23 percent of the projected vote and is level with the conservatives who have been forced to move further right in response to the threat from Reform.

There is no single right-wing party platforms that transcends European borders. But there are strong similarities. Across Europe, populist parties of both left and right are challenging the established political consensus, particularly over immigration, national sovereignty and the powers of Brussels. On the right, a significant faction is also questioning Europe’s support for Ukraine and its confrontation with Russia—but the populist right is itself deeply divided over NATO, Russia and the future of the Atlantic alliance.

All of which threatens the cohesion of the European project with which Mark Carney wants to link. The problem is that the European project is the dream of a political elite. For years the public went along with the dream because it was producing prosperity. Now growth in the EU is stuck at 1.2 percent and unemployment in France is 8.3 percent and in the double figures for young people.

Carney wants Canada closer to Europe. The irony is that Europe itself may be moving away from the liberal consensus that made the relationship so attractive.

Greenland

Denmark wins. Greenland wins. NATO wins. Trump thinks—and says—he wins.

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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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Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: When Donald met Xi

By Tom Arms | Sat 26th September 2026 - 9:44 am

Donald Trump met Xi Jinping this week. Little of substance was agreed. But the meeting itself was of considerable substance.

The symbols of protocol send powerful messages. Where people meet. The colour of the carpet. The body language and the strength of the hand clasp and the sincerity of the smile can set a diplomatic agenda for years to come.

The Xi-Trump Summit was all about diplomatic signals. Trump’s messages were clear from the red carpet to the flyover to the state banquet, he was telling Xi: We respect you. We need you.

Xi, on the other hand, arrived knowing that several cards that Trump wanted were in his hand.

The fact is that Trump’s tariffs backfired. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that since early 2025, Chinese imports from the US—especially the  politically important agricultural products—have fallen by 15 percent. But the amount it has imported has remained relatively stable as China replaced American imports from elsewhere.

Trump went into this week’s summit wanting China to buy more from America. Xi arrived having demonstrated that China could buy less from America without any bad consequences.

And the tale from the other side of the trade coin—exports—is even more lopsided. According to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) the loss of the US market created by tariffs was more than offset by trade with other countries. Tariffs caused Chinese exports to the US to drop by $105 billion. Chinese exports to other parts of  the world increased in 2025 to $301 billion.

Nor does the fall in direct Chinese exports necessarily mean that fewer Chinese-made products reached American consumers. Some Chinese manufacturers have responded by shifting production and intermediate-input trade to Vietnam, Mexico and other countries, allowing supply chains to be rerouted around the tariffs.

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Joe Nutt

ALDC by-election report, 24th September

By Joe Nutt | Fri 25th September 2026 - 6:30 pm

Six principal authority by-elections took place across England on Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th September.

The Conservatives were defending two seats (in South Staffordshire and Berkshire), Labour defended two seats (in Milton Keynes and Brighton & Hove), localist party Tunbridge Wells Alliance defended one in Kent, and the Green Party defended one in Gloucestershire.

The highlight of the week came from Kent, where the Liberal Democrats staged a sensational victory in Tunbridge Wells – surging from third place in May to win the ward with 37.4% of the vote. In Berkshire, we came within a whisper of another major gain in Bray, boosting our vote share by +20.1% to fall just 26 votes short of the Conservatives on a council we flipped in 2023. Over in the Cotswolds, Danny Loveridge delivered an impressive performance from a standing start to take a clear second place as the Green vote collapsed, while Labour and the Greens exchanged seats on Brighton and Hove Council.

South East

Tunbridge Wells DC, Cranbrook, Sissinghurst & Frittenden

In Kent, the Liberal Democrats secured an extraordinary gain in the Cranbrook, Sissinghurst & Frittenden ward of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.

The Liberal Democrats took control of Tunbridge Wells Council in 2024 before going on to win the parliamentary constituency at the July 2024 General Election. When this three-member ward was run on new boundaries in 2024, the Conservatives took two seats and the localist Tunbridge Wells Alliance won the third. In the local elections earlier in May 2026, the Conservatives held their seat while our candidate finished third behind Reform UK.

This by-election saw a dramatic turnaround. Supported by an energetic campaign team, Harry Wormington achieved a huge +22.9% surge in vote share to leapfrog both Reform UK and the Conservatives, winning the seat outright with 37.4% of the vote.

Huge congratulations to Cllr Harry Wormington and the team on a phenomenal win against both the Tories and Reform UK!

Lib Dem (Harry Wormington): 697 (37.4%, +22.9%)

Conservative: 590 (31.6%, -14.6%)

Reform UK: 392 (21.0%, -4.4%)

Green Party: 188 (10.0%, -3.9%)

Liberal Democrat GAIN from Tunbridge Wells Alliance

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Barry Rhodes

Conference from the other side of the barrier

By Barry Rhodes | Fri 25th September 2026 - 5:10 pm

Four conference ago, I walked into Liberal Democrat conference as a delegate. I arrived on my own, not knowing many people and not really knowing what to expect.

This year’s conference has now come to an end. It was my fourth conference overall and my third time stewarding, so I thought it was a good opportunity to reflect on what conference looks like from the other side of the barrier.

When you attend as a delegate, you naturally see the debates, speeches, motions and fringe events. What you don’t necessarily see is everything that happens behind the scenes to make it all work.

That’s where the stewards come in.

There are people arriving who need directions, rooms to check, questions to answer and all the little things that need to happen throughout the day. It can be busy, but that’s part of what makes it enjoyable. You’re part of a team and everyone is there to help make sure conference runs as smoothly as possible.

Being a steward also doesn’t mean giving up your own conference experience. You still get opportunities to attend debates, fringe events and other sessions you’re interested in. With a bit of planning around your stewarding duties, you can still get along to the things you really want to see.

That’s important because we’re all there for our own reasons. For me, there are debates I want to hear, fringe events I want to attend and, of course, people I want to catch up with.

And the people are probably my favourite part of conference.

I’ve been lucky to work with a fantastic stewarding team, led by our chief steward Jodie. She does a brilliant job of keeping everyone organised and making sure the team feels supported.

Over the three conferences I’ve stewarded, I’ve met some brilliant people and made friendships that have grown beyond the stewarding shifts. There are people I might not see for months, but when conference comes around again, it’s like no time has passed.

Sometimes the evening can be just as memorable as the daytime programme. You can sit down with friends for a chat about the day’s events and end up talking about politics, life and everything else until much later than you intended.

That’s the thing about conference. The politics brings people together, but the friendships are what make it special.

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Jack Meredith

Proper Grimond liberalism

By Jack Meredith | Fri 25th September 2026 - 2:54 pm

On Tuesday, 22 September, Tim Farron MP delivered a speech at our 2026 Autumn Conference during the F36 policy motion, “Restoring our waters: Britain’s water company crisis”, on the need for water mutualisation amid repetitive failures of privately owned water companies.

During this speech, he said, “proper Grimond liberalism”, referencing former Liberal Party leader Jo Grimond and his support for cooperatives and mutuals to manage public services over nationalisation and laissez-faire economics. For many people, this would have simply been just another niche reference, but for us at the Grimond Society, it meant a great deal.

Since July 2026, the Grimond Society has advocated for greater support for cooperative and mutual business models, social enterprises, shared ownership models, and co-determination in Liberal Democrat policy. We believe spreading power and wealth doesn’t stop at the ballot box; it extends to our communities, our workplaces, and every facet of everyday life.

We have grown significantly since our founding. We boast almost 70 members, including lay members, councillors, elected members of devolved parliaments, and party grandees. We have been featured in Co-op News, and the ever-fantastic Josh Matthews delivered the Society’s launch speech at Conference.

So hearing Tim mention “Grimond liberalism” on Tuesday reaffirmed the need for our party to show greater support for collective ownership. Rt Hon Sir Vince Cable, as Business Secretary during the 2010-2015 coalition government, advocated greater support for employee-owned businesses, but more recently, that same level of support has been lacking. If it weren’t for Josh Matthews’ earlier speech during the F6 policy motion “Liberal Democrats Mean Business,” there would have been only a passing mention of “mutuals, social enterprises and community interest companies”.

And for good reason, too, our party should once again become more supportive. According to Cooperatives UK’s “Cooperative and Mutual Economy 2026 report“, the cooperative and mutual economy generated £241.3bn this year alone, an 8% increase from last year. 1.7m people work in the democratic economy, with the number of cooperatives and mutuals increasing to 11,113; those are 3.2% and 4.9% increases, respectively. More people than ever are getting involved in democracy beyond voting and campaigning, and we should be there to support them and the causes they care so deeply about.

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John Kelly

Is Conference still supreme?

By John Kelly | Fri 25th September 2026 - 12:48 pm

Aspects of the recent Party conference in Brighton raise an important question in my mind: what has happened to democratic policy-making in the Liberal Democrats?

When Nick Clegg was leader, he repeatedly distinguished us from Labour and the Conservatives by emphasising how we made policy. Conference, he reminded us, was supreme.

I remember many conferences where that principle was visible in practice. There were robust debates, speakers for and against, amendments carried and defeated, and motions sometimes lost. Conference was not there simply to endorse a predetermined position. Its purpose was to debate and decide.

The contrast with the conference just gone is striking. Every motion debated was approved and, as far as I am aware, so was every amendment.

That should make us ask whether something has changed.

It appears increasingly difficult for a motion, or even an amendment, to reach the agenda unless the Federal Conference Committee has reason to believe the relevant party spokesperson is content for it to be discussed. If that is how the system operates in practice, it creates a formidable barrier for individuals, local parties and affiliated organisations wanting to put forward new or challenging ideas.

The problem does not end with motion selection. At this conference, remarkably few speakers were called to oppose motions or amendments. Many amendments were so uncontroversial they might better have been treated as drafting changes, leaving precious conference time for genuine disagreements.

I find it difficult to believe there were not more members willing to speak against. In at least two debates, I know there were.

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Hugh Andrew

Ed Davey’s Conference speech

By Hugh Andrew | Fri 25th September 2026 - 10:29 am

Caron threw down a gauntlet in her article on Ed’s conference speech.

Most of the comments seem to have been negative on two main grounds – that the radical proposals on taxation had been bounced on the party and that whatever gains are made from Europe should be spent by the state. While I agree with much of what is said about Ed – the failure to inspire, the lack of ability to clearly define what Liberalism is, the instinctive tendency to see every vote of protest and none of purpose, in this case I suspect that a very cautious man played a blinder.

It is no great secret that the Burnham government is desperate for ideas to kickstart Labour. It is no secret that the freezing of thresholds has had a disproportionate impact on the poorest in our society and is felt to be deeply unfair. It is also no great secret that this idea has been swirling in the political ether for some time. So is it not simply possible that Ed knew that this was either going to happen in the budget or was a very serious runner?

He therefore took a policy which Labour wanted to trumpet as a flagship change and identified it once again with us – that of raising thresholds.

So the Chancellor faces a problem, he either doesn’t enact the policy. In which case we identify ourselves and not Labour as the party addressing the cost of living crisis with an immediate real impact on the poorest paid. Or he does. In which case he is enacting a Liberal Democrat policy proposal and highlighting it.

The Chancellor has another problem which we as an opposition party do not face. He has to pay for it now. It is highly likely he will fill the gap with Capital Gains Tax increases. We on the other hand once again highlight the price we pay for not being in Europe. The real price, paid from our pockets.

So on this issue I congratulate Ed.

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Roderick Lynch

Conference or What?

By Roderick Lynch | Thu 24th September 2026 - 6:58 pm

Who can actually afford to take part in Liberal Democrat democracy?

A conversation with Donna Harris about her campaigning on childcare got me thinking. Donna’s work is fundamentally about removing barriers. Barriers that prevent women from participating fully in society, work and public life.

It made me wonder whether we sometimes overlook the barriers within our own party. Because there is a slightly uncomfortable question we should be asking after Brighton 2026: Who actually gets to participate in Liberal Democrat democracy?

The Liberal Democrats proudly say that conference is where the party makes its decisions. Every member has an equal say and an equal vote. That sounds wonderfully democratic. But equality of voting rights isn’t necessarily equality of access.

The Autumn 2026 full conference pass was £225 at the late rate. A weekend pass was £140. There are concessionary rates, first-time discounts and a £10 rate for under-18 members. There is also an Access Fund.

But those are only the starting costs. Add a train ticket. Hotel. Food. Local transport. Potential childcare. Time away from work. Suddenly, conference isn’t a £225 decision. For many people, it is a £500, £700 or £1,000 decision. And that changes who can realistically be in the room.

Think about an 18-year-old member. Or a student. Someone working part time. Someone starting their first job. Someone renting in London. Someone supporting a family. Someone from a lower-income household.They may passionately believe in Liberal Democrat democracy. They may simply not have the money to participate in it.

The party offers an online solution, however it cost £25.00. Sounds reasonable, but you have to make sure you have the relevant Data and WiFi service. There is also no conference experience, that’s a given.

And that brings us to representation.

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Shaun Ennis

Where next on the Triple Lock?

By Shaun Ennis | Thu 24th September 2026 - 4:27 pm

At conference this weekend, there was a rare – and welcome – moment of controversy in the hall.

During Ed Davey’s Q&A, journalist Carolyn Quinn asked for a show of hands.  Should the Liberal Democrats continue supporting the triple lock pension?

It was close.  The triple lock survived the straw poll, but only narrowly.

For a party which proudly introduced the triple lock, that tells us something.  There is an appetite among Liberal Democrats for a serious conversation about intergenerational fairness.

We should have it.

The triple lock was the right policy for its time. When Liberal Democrats entered government in 2010, too many pensioners had seen the value of the state pension eroded over decades.  Linking annual increases to whichever was highest – earnings, inflation or 2.5% – was rooted in a liberal instinct.  Giving people dignity and security in retirement.

It worked.

The question is whether a mechanism designed for Britain in 2010 should continue indefinitely, irrespective of how Britain changes.

Today the state spends around £154 billion a year on the state pension.  The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that this is now £16 billion higher annually than it would have been without the triple lock.  Looking towards 2050, it estimates the additional annual cost of maintaining the lock could plausibly be as high as £40 billion.

That is not an argument for impoverishing pensioners.  Nor should we succumb to lazy generational warfare which portrays pensioners as universally wealthy. It is an argument for asking where state support can best deliver fairness in Britain today. I believe the answer is children and families.

The triple lock has achieved something important.  It has deliberately increased the state pension faster than earnings over time.  But no equivalent promise exists to families bringing up the generation which will ultimately finance tomorrow’s pensions, NHS and social care system.  That needs to change.

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Kamran Hussain

I watched Ed Davey’s speech. Here’s why it matters 

By Kamran Hussain | Thu 24th September 2026 - 2:01 pm

Whilst those in the media world and the Westminster bubble speculate about the future of our party leader, Ed Davey, Ed focused on what matters most – a plan to end the squeeze on middle-income earners, put hundreds of pounds back in the pocket of millions of people, and take ordinary workers out of paying the higher tax rate that was designed for stockbrokers.

Ed announced that the Liberal Democrats would raise the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 and increase the higher rate threshold from £50,270 to £56,000. He said that would mean taking two million more people out of paying tax altogether and giving most taxpayers a £680 tax cut.

£680 doesn’t sound like much to some people, but to others, it means a great deal more – carers doing early morning calls and spending a chunk of their wage keeping a car on the road. Lads on nights in the warehouses off the M62. People on the tills doing 30 hours and still checking the banking app before they go shopping. Taxi drivers who’ve watched fuel, insurance and licence costs go up while fares haven’t kept pace. For them, £680 is a couple of months of gas and electric. It’s school shoes without putting them on a card.

What gets me is that many of these people have been paying more tax for years without anyone announcing it. The allowance has been frozen, so when your wage goes up just to keep up with prices, more of it gets taxed. You don’t feel any richer, but you pay more. Under the current plans that freeze runs until 2031. Ed’s plan would lift it.

He didn’t pretend this is only about low earners, either. The higher rate change helps people on better wages, and some will say that’s where a lot of the money goes. That’s a fair point. But in towns and cities across our nation, the people creeping over £50,000 aren’t bankers. They’re senior nurses, teachers who’ve moved up to deputy head, engineers who’ve been with the same firm for twenty years. Ed said a ‘tax band designed for stockbrokers is now holding back teachers and nurses’, and I think most people would recognise that.

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Tom McAdam

Citizens abroad and party strategy

By Tom McAdam | Thu 24th September 2026 - 11:15 am

There were many things to support in the party strategy motion. It includes confident liberalism, modern campaigning, and reaching new communities. However, there is one notable exclusion. In fact, around five million notable exclusions: citizens abroad.

The strategy talks about reaching out to all communities in our country. These five million people are not in the UK, but they are served by our democracy. I live in Switzerland now, having moved for a job. Yet decisions made in Westminster continue to affect my life.

The starkest of those in recent years was of course Brexit. Many of the million British citizens living and working in Europe spent years in limbo after the referendum, not knowing what residency status they would eventually be afforded in the country in which they had built a life. We continue to see Britons being removed from EU countries, most recently Charles, a British citizen deported from Sweden.

All because of a decision made in Westminster. 

It doesn’t stop there. A pensioner retiring to Australia from the UK in 2006 would now receive less than half the basic State Pension of a pensioner who stayed in the UK, despite having made exactly the same contributions.

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The Voice

New party political – with the orange bench

By The Voice | Thu 24th September 2026 - 8:48 am
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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Max Wilkinson’s speech to Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 23rd September 2026 - 3:55 pm

Creep glasses and jokes at Robert Jenrick’s expense were high on the agenda for Max Wilkinson in his speech to Conference.

I am used to being disappointed by Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson’s speeches. I’d rather a more positive message on immigration but this was better than we have had in recent times.

I was glad to see him prioritise tackling violence against women and girls. While I had been worried about the packaging of the campaign about smart glasses,it’s an important issue to tackle. Anna Sabine and Wera Hobhouse’s amendment at Conference called for it to be very clear when …

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Cody Butler

How to capture the Tonbridge Tories

By Cody Butler | Wed 23rd September 2026 - 2:30 pm

In 2025, a think-tank director pressed several volumes on Ted Heath, along with Ian Gilmour and Mark Garnett’s Whatever Happened to the Tories?, into my hands. That led to a lethal intellectual falling-out with the Conservatives, and then to a thesis: the centre ought to unite. I heeded the call and joined the Liberal Democrats. But such a project cannot live on tactical votes. It requires a serious occupation of the Tonbridge Tory.

To do that, you need representatives. Voters can be spoken to in public. Ground is held by people. That means a garrison. Some will want to slot in a Liberal of their own and call the job done. That mistakes a Dieppe raid for D-Day. So long as a better centre-right alternative exists, the voter is only on loan. What is needed is a Légion étrangère of Liberal Tories. They need not sit for Tonbridge. They only need to be in the party. That gives the party room to lean left or right when the election requires it, without either move looking like a desertion of the other. It is the same bargain that keeps Liberal Tories and Brexiteer Tories in the Conservatives: the chance that, one day, it will be their turn at the wheel.

This prophecy can be fulfilled because the centre-left have little patience for a formal deal with the Conservative Party. Once that is admitted, ‘unite the right’ writes itself. A weakened Conservative Party would have little reason to preserve its old balance, leaving moderates stranded. Many MPs will stay from loyalty, habit, or the touching belief that next year will be more sensible. But it may be their Arnhem.

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Mark Hofman

The bigger your car, the bigger your fuel duty cut

By Mark Hofman | Wed 23rd September 2026 - 1:00 pm

Ahead of Ed Davey’s conference speech, the Liberal Democrats launched their cost-of-transport campaign. With households facing higher costs from the conflict in Iran, the party wants an emergency three-month package: a 10p cut in fuel duty, cheaper rail and bus fares, and lower EV charging costs. The bill is around £2 billion, funded from the extra revenue higher fuel prices generate.

There is a clear case for helping people through a sudden shock. But a party that has long argued for tackling climate change should ask a bigger question: are fuel-duty cuts really the best way to help people in the long term?

Britain has a familiar pattern. Prices rise. Households feel it. Government makes fossil fuels cheaper. Billions are spent, the pressure eases, and a few months or years later we are back in the same place.

None of it changes the underlying vulnerability. We remain exposed to international oil markets, and transport costs feed straight into the cost of living. A fuel-duty cut provides relief. It doesn’t reduce our dependence on oil, the majority of which is imported.

Fuel-duty cuts are also poorly targeted. The more fuel you use, the more you save, so someone driving a large, inefficient SUV gains more than someone in a smaller family car. That is hard to square with directing scarce public money at the households who need it most.

The OBR estimates successive fuel-duty freezes cost the Treasury around £120 billion since 2010-11. That money could have gone into transport infrastructure, clean energy and the industries underpinning Britain’s future prosperity.

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Keith Creswell

A call for reform with a small “r”

By Keith Creswell | Wed 23rd September 2026 - 11:30 am

Suella Braverman’s recent statement on making hymn singing mandatory in English schools shows just how out of touch Reform is with modern British society.

Reform UK’s proposed “patriotic curriculum,” explicitly rooted in Christianity, raises a basic question: what does it mean to be British today?

Christianity is central to Britain’s history and cultural inheritance, shaping its institutions, architecture, literature, music and traditions. Children should learn about that heritage. But teaching Christianity’s role in national life is different from requiring children to take part in Christian practice. That is what the proposal would do: every school would have to make pupils sing Christian hymns regularly, backed by law and potentially monitored by Ofsted.

The policy would not reflect modern England. In the 2021 Census, 46.2% of people in England and Wales identified as Christian, down from 59.3% in 2011, while 37.2% reported no religion. Identification also overstates practice: the British Social Attitudes survey found that only about 5% of adults were both Christian and weekly worshippers, while about 9% attended at least monthly. Britain is also religiously diverse. NatCen found that around one in three weekly worshippers attend a mosque, mandir, gurdwara, temple or synagogue rather than a church, with the share higher among younger people.

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Lucas North

Liberals debate

By Lucas North | Wed 23rd September 2026 - 9:55 am

On Monday, Conference debated our motion “Restoring Trans Rights”, and the motion passed overwhelmingly. As Chair of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats, I’m proud of that – proud of everyone who put the work in, proud of the people who got up and spoke, and proud that our party said clearly, again, that it stands with trans people.

But there is one thing I want us to carry forward from that debate.

We win the argument by making it. We win the vote by voting for it. We do not need to win it by shouting anyone down.

There will always be people at Conference who disagree with us. Sometimes profoundly, in ways that are genuinely upsetting or just plain wrong. But the right response to that is confidence, not volume. Speak up, challenge the misinformation, make the case properly – but let other speakers finish. A heckle has never changed anyone’s mind. Booing doesn’t make our argument stronger. Shouting over someone at a microphone doesn’t add anything. And we don’t need to do it.

Conference heard the arguments on Monday and made its decision. We should have enough confidence in our values, in our arguments and in Liberal Democrat members to allow a debate to happen and then win it.

This matters online too, where there are people whose entire political strategy is to provoke a reaction. They’re not trying to persuade you. They want the quote-tweet. They want hundreds of angry replies. They want the confrontation, because the confrontation is the content.

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Caron Lindsay

What do we think of Ed Davey’s tax cut announcement?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 23rd September 2026 - 8:48 am

I always find it odd that, when we have had hundreds of Lib Dems discussing policy for days, we then have the leader announcing a major new policy in his speech, just as everyone’s about to go out the door.

In Spring it was a new British nuke, which we’ve mercifully not heard much about since. However the tax cut policy announced yesterday might have more longevity.

Basically we are going back to one of the really popular ideas from the coalition years, and raising the threshold at which you pay tax to £15,000. This is the idea initially brought forward by my Lib Dem Women colleague Lizzie Jewkes and which was talked about in a New Statesman podcast just last week. Lizzie was described as an “ordinary woman” and anyone who knows this very lovable force of nature will know she is as far from ordinary as you can get.

When we were in coalition, the Tories constantly claimed credit for this policy because it was so popular without mentioning that it was our idea, of course.

Anyway, the other proposal is that we would raise the threshold at which you pay the 40% tax rate to £56,000.

This would all be paid for by the benefits of rejoining the single market and customs union, proposals which we can probably all get behind.

The detail is set out n this article on the party website.

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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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Paul Walter

Paul’s conference diary (4) – Why I care, Simon Hughes at church and Glee Club photos

By Paul Walter | Tue 22nd September 2026 - 8:00 am

My last day before I disappear on five buses. I had a run along the promenade and noticed a police operation. I take my hat off to the police. We should remember that they spend an awful lot of time and care following up “concerns for safety”. Often they are like emergency social workers. Full marks to them.

Hove Plinth is a thing. At the moment it has a beautiful sculpture called “Flight of the Langoustine” on it (pictured).

While having breakfast I watched the debate on A Liberal Vision for primary health care.

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Tom Gordon MP

Winning back a generation starts with fixing the broken student loan system

By Tom Gordon MP | Mon 21st September 2026 - 4:00 pm

For too long, student finance has been the subject our party would rather avoid. I understand why. It is uncomfortable territory. The scars of the coalition run deep, and many of us have heard about them on doorsteps ever since.

But we cannot keep kicking the can down the road. Millions of graduates are paying the price. If we want to win back the trust of my generation – the graduates who signed up to Plan 2 loans between 2012 and 2023, and the growing cohort on the new Plan 5 loans – we have to offer them a solution.

That is why I have brought forward a Ten Minute Rule Bill calling for a proper review of student finance, including the terms graduates were sold. The cross-party Treasury Committee has already found that the way loans were promoted amounted to mis-selling, and that the Government has “a moral obligation” to reverse the latest threshold freeze. The Government has refused.

Let’s be honest about how we got here. Today’s system bears little resemblance to the one introduced under the coalition. That scheme promised a repayment threshold that would rise with earnings, and it kept maintenance grants for the poorest students.

Since then, successive governments have bolted on change after change. Grants scrapped. Thresholds frozen again and again. Terms rewritten after students had already signed. What remains is a Frankenstein’s monster that nobody would design from scratch.

None of that lets us off the hook. It is uncomfortable to admit, but we were part of this story, and we should say so. We should also say what this system has become: regressive and illiberal.

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 21 September 2026 – time to clean up our politics?

By Mark Valladares | Mon 21st September 2026 - 2:00 pm

Greetings from somewhere close to Brighton Beach. Admittedly, the Brighton Beach at the end of the B Line from the Bronx, through Manhattan to Queens, but close nonetheless.

There has been a lot of talk about the impact of large donors in recent weeks, with increasing calls for strict limits on the maximum size of donations and tighter eligibility criteria for donors. And there is much to said for it.

The problem is that political parties have become increasingly dependent on a small number of large donors as membership numbers have declined and the obligations on political parties increase. Raising large sums from a small number of wealthy donors is, in many ways, much easier than developing broad-based small donor support. And, if you’re very wealthy, an investment in a political party, especially one with a prospect of power, is a potentially valuable one.

I used to be a member of the ALDE Party’s Financial Advisory Committee, effectively its audit and scrutiny body, developing its policy on donations and establishing clear and transparent reporting mechanisms. This was made much easier by the rule that no annual donation, corporate or individual, could exceed €18,000, approximately £15,000. It ensured that no European political party could easily be influenced by a large donor, allowing policymaking to be influenced more by ideas than the fear of a budgetary squeeze.

In turn, that removes or, at least, restricts, the perception of a political party as being owned by a small number of individuals whose motivation is perhaps questionable.

But that does leave the question of how you fund political parties going forward. In an ideal world, mass membership political parties would be self-financing but we probably need to be realistic – being a member of a political party requires a degree of compromise given that all of them are effective coalitions of opinion and the pressure groups offer people an opportunity to focus on the causes that matter to them.

And that’s why I think that state funding of political parties is probably the best solution. The principle has effectively been conceded – the freepost for General Elections is state funding, after all – and linking funding to performance in multiple electoral cycles will limit fluctuations in cashflow and allow parties to plan better.

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Caron Lindsay

What’s on at Conference today?

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 21st September 2026 - 9:15 am

Conference kicks off with two brief policy debates on making recruitment fairer and regulating abusive use of the legal system. Then GP services in England before a keynote speech by Max Wilkinson.

After a three hour lunch break for fringes, there’s a debate on supporting people to age well in England, a keynote speech by Jane Dodds and a motion on stopping violence against women and girls in the digital age from Lib Dem Women and Marie Goldman, our Women and Equalities spokesperson.

The day ends with the parliamentary parties’ report and two emergency motions. One is from YL on wildfires and the other is from LGBT+ Lib Dems setting out a way forward after the imposition of the cruel and unworkable EHRC Code of Practice on access to services. Under this code, trans people can be banned from facilities associated with their lived gender, and, for trans men and some non binary people, also from facilities associated with their sex assigned at birth. It also suggests that access can be policed based on how people look so if you are a cis woman who is very tall, or with a deeper voice, you could find yourself being challenged when you go to the toilet.

The motion suggests a cross party committee of MPs to work out a way to fix this to ensure dignity and safety for everyone. All very sensible.

The Young Liberals have also put in a motion on action to tackle wildfires which calls for a number of things including preventative measures, assessing risk, temporary restrictions in areas of high risk.

Here’s the day in full.

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Paul Walter

Paul’s conference diary (3) – frog box interview and my new AI girlfriend

By Paul Walter | Mon 21st September 2026 - 8:10 am

Somehow I managed to drag myself into the main hall for the early doors “Making music matter” motion. Jennie Rigg neatly summarised the whole thing saying that copyright law is not being enforced so that LLMs (Large Language Models) copy existing music and it is churned out as “AI slop”. She added that AI2 should be used to support musicians but instead it is being used to rip off composers and musicians.

I then went to my go-to quiet spot to write a speech. I have an idea for the strategy debate later. Mind you, it’s been ten years since I made a speech to conference.

A big shout-out to the conference information desk team. They do a great job. I am normally contactless in my payments but I had a need for a crisp fiver. Knowing the whereabouts of the nearest ATM is a bit Olde Worlde but the team managed to find the info for me.

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The Voice

WATCH: Munira Wilson’s speech to Conference

By The Voice | Sun 20th September 2026 - 4:29 pm

Education spokesperson Munira Wilson gave her keynote speech to Conference yesterday. Enjoy:

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