Liberal Democrats (UK)

Liberal Democrats
AbbreviationLib Dems
LeaderEd Davey
Deputy LeaderDaisy Cooper
PresidentMark Pack
Lords LeaderRichard Newby
Chief ExecutiveMike Dixon
Founded3 March 1988 (1988-03-03)
Merger of
Headquarters1 Vincent Square, Westminster, London, England[1]
Youth wingYoung Liberals
Women's wingLiberal Democrat Women
Overseas wingLib Dems Abroad
LGBT wingLGBT+ Liberal Democrats
Membership (2023)Increase 90,000+[2]: 13 
Ideology
Political positionCentre to centre-left
European affiliationAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliationLiberal International
Northern Irish affiliation
Colours  Gold[3]
Slogan"For a Fair Deal"[4]
Anthem"The Land"
ConferenceLiberal Democrat Conference
Governing bodyFederal Board
Devolved or semi-autonomous branches
House of Commons
15 / 650
House of Lords
80 / 792
Scottish Parliament
4 / 129
Senedd
1 / 60
London Assembly
2 / 25
Directly elected mayors
1 / 14
Councillors[nb][5]
2,987 / 18,646
Website
libdems.org.uk

^Councillors of local authorities in England (including 25 aldermen of the City of London) and Scotland, principal councils in Wales and local councils in Northern Ireland.

The Liberal Democrats (colloquially referred to as the Lib Dems) are a liberal[6] political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1988. They have been the third-largest UK political party by the number of votes cast since the 1992 general election, with the exception of the 2015 general election. They have 15 members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 84 members of the House of Lords, four Members of the Scottish Parliament and one member in the Welsh Senedd. The party has nearly 3,000 local council seats. The party holds a twice-per-year Liberal Democrat Conference, at which party policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents' conference rules,[7][8][9] the Lib Dems grant all members attending its Conference the right to speak in debates and vote on party policy, under a one member, one vote system.[10][11] The party also allows its members to vote online for its policies and in the election of a new leader.[12] The party served as the junior party in a coalition government with the Conservative Party between 2010 and 2015; with Scottish Labour in the Scottish Executive from 1999 to 2007; and with Welsh Labour in the Welsh Government from 2000 to 2003 and from 2016 to 2021.

In 1981, an electoral alliance was established between the Liberal Party, a group which descended from the 18th-century Whigs, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a splinter group from the Labour Party. In 1988, the parties merged as the Social and Liberal Democrats, adopting their present name just over a year later. Under the leadership of Paddy Ashdown and later Charles Kennedy, the party grew during the 1990s and 2000s, focusing its campaigns on specific seats and becoming the third-largest party in the House of Commons. In 2010, under Nick Clegg's leadership, the Liberal Democrats were junior partners in David Cameron's Conservative-led coalition government in which Clegg served as Deputy Prime Minister. Although it allowed them to implement some of their policies, the coalition badly damaged the party's electoral standing and they lost 48 of their 56 MPs at the 2015 general election, which relegated them to fourth-largest party in the House of Commons. Under the leaderships of Tim Farron, Vince Cable and Jo Swinson, the party was refocused as a pro-Europeanist party opposing Brexit. Since 2015, the party has failed to recapture its pre-coalition successes, and a poor performance in the 2019 general election saw Swinson lose her seat. However, under the leadership of Ed Davey, the party has undergone a revival in fortunes and electoral performance, winning hundreds more seats on local councils, being especially successful in the 2022 and 2023 local elections. Davey has also become the first leader since Paddy Ashdown in the 1990s to win 4 by-elections in the space of one Parliament, many now believe the Lib Dems are on course for a nationwide revival, having now recovered from the 2010 to 2015 coalition with the Conservatives.[13]

A centrist[14] to centre-left[15] political party, the Liberal Democrats ideologically draw upon both liberalism and social democracy. Different factions have dominated the party at different times, each with its own ideological bent, some leaning towards the centre-left and others the centre. The party calls for constitutional reform, including a change from the first-past-the-post voting system to proportional representation. Emphasising stronger protections for civil liberties, the party promotes social-liberal approaches[16] to issues like LGBT rights, drug liberalisation, education policy and criminal justice. It favours a market-based economy supplemented with social welfare spending. The party is internationalist and pro-European,[17] and supported the People's Vote for the continued UK membership of the European Union and greater European integration, having previously called for adoption of the euro currency. The Lib Dems have promoted further environmental protections and opposed British military ventures like the Iraq War.

The Liberal Democrats are historically strongest in northern Scotland, south-west London, South West England, and mid Wales. Membership is primarily made up of professionals that belong within the middle-class (without the reliance on trade unions or collective bargaining) and the party's composition has a higher proportion of university educated members than the other major political parties of the United Kingdom. The party is a federation of the English, Scottish, and Welsh Liberal Democrats. The party is in a partnership with the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, while still organising there. Internationally, the party is a member of the Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, with its MEPs formerly affiliated to the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, until the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020.

  1. ^ Norman, Paul (21 June 2021). "Liberal Democrats Relocate Westminster HQ". CoStar. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021.
  2. ^ Burton, Matthew; Tunnicliffe, Richard (29 April 2023). "Liberal Democrats website". UK Parliament House of Commons Library. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  3. ^ "Style guide". Liberal Democrats.
  4. ^ "For a Fair Deal".
  5. ^ "Open Council Data UK". opencouncildata.co.uk.
  6. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2017). "United Kingdom". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  7. ^ "Party Conferences". Institute for Government. 26 August 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  8. ^ Elliott Chappell (5 October 2021). "Labour Conference 2021: The content of every policy motion and how it passed". Labour List. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  9. ^ Jennie Gollen (5 October 2018). "Your guide to SNP conference". SNP. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  10. ^ "How is policy decided?". Liberal Democrats. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  11. ^ "Standing orders for Federal Conference - Glossary of terms" (PDF). Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  12. ^ "Liberal Democrats - Spring Conference Online". Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  13. ^ Sloman, Peter (2020). "Squeezed Out? The Liberal Democrats and the 2019 General Election". The Political Quarterly. 91 (1): 35–42. doi:10.1111/1467-923X.12816. ISSN 1467-923X.
  14. ^ Mark Kesselman; Joel Krieger; William A. Joseph (2018). Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas. Cengage Learning. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-337-67124-8.
  15. ^ Cassel-Piccot, Muriel (20 December 2014). "The Liberal Democrat Party: From Contender to Coalitionist". Revue LISA/LISA e-journal. Littératures, Histoire des Idées, Images, Sociétés du Monde Anglophone – Literature, History of Ideas, Images and Societies of the English-speaking World (in French) (vol. XII-n°8). doi:10.4000/lisa.6954. ISSN 1762-6153. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help)
  16. ^ Hans Slomp (2011). Europe, A Political Profile: An American Companion to European Politics [2 volumes]: An American Companion to European Politics. ABC-CLIO. p. 343. ISBN 978-0-313-39182-8.
  17. ^ Davey, Ed (30 January 2020). "We fought the good fight - now what next?". Liberal Democrats.

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