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The Liberal Democrats (colloquially known as the Lib Dems) are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1988. The current leader of the party is Ed Davey. They are the third-largest party in the United Kingdom, with 72 members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons. They have 78 members of the House of Lords,[6] four members of the Scottish Parliament, one member in the Welsh Senedd, and more than 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' rules,[7][8][9] the Liberal Democrats grant all members attending its Conference the right to 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]
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. In the 2019 general election, the party garnered 11.5 per cent of the vote on an anti-Brexit platform, but this did not translate into seat gains, with Swinson losing her own seat.[13] However, the party gained hundreds of seats on local councils under the leadership of Ed Davey, being especially successful in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 local elections. Davey is the party's first leader since Ashdown in the 1990s to win four by-elections in the space of one Parliament. This success continued at the 2024 general election, where despite only a small vote share increase to 12.2 per cent, the party won 72 seats, their highest total ever, and returned to being the third largest party in the House of Commons for the first time since 2015.
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 is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE), and Liberal International. It 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 has been described as progressive,[17][18][19] and is internationalist and pro-European,[20] 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. The Liberal Democrats have promoted further environmental protections and opposed British military ventures such as 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 middle-class professionals 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.
- ^ Norman, Paul (21 June 2021). "Liberal Democrats Relocate Westminster HQ". CoStar. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021.
- ^ "Liberal Democrats website". libdems.org.uk. 19 September 2024. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
- ^ "For a Fair Deal". Liberal Democrats.
- ^ "Open Council Data UK". opencouncildata.co.uk.
- ^ "Open Council Data UK". opencouncildata.co.uk.
- ^ "Find Members of the House of Lords". Retrieved 21 July 2024.
- ^ "Party Conferences". Institute for Government. 26 August 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
- ^ Elliott Chappell (5 October 2021). "Labour Conference 2021: The content of every policy motion and how it passed". Labour List. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
- ^ Jennie Gollen (5 October 2018). "Your guide to SNP conference". SNP. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
- ^ "How is policy decided?". Liberal Democrats. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
- ^ "Standing orders for Federal Conference – Glossary of terms" (PDF). Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
- ^ "Liberal Democrats – Spring Conference Online". Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Mark Kesselman; Joel Krieger; William A. Joseph (2018). Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas. Cengage Learning. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-3376-7124-8.
- ^ 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). XII (8). doi:10.4000/lisa.6954. ISSN 1762-6153.
- ^ 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 978-0-3133-9182-8.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
HauteClose20192was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "The Liberal Democrats' place in progressive politics". The Guardian. 19 December 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ Winters, Jason (20 October 2023). "The ideology of the Liberal Democrats". Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ Davey, Ed (30 January 2020). "We fought the good fight – now what next?". Liberal Democrats.