The scenes of people trying to cross the Channel demand urgent action. They also show that the Government’s approach isn’t working.

in her two years as Home Secretary, Priti Patel has only made the problem worse."

These crossings are incredibly dangerous – as demonstrated so tragically by the deaths of 27 people when their dinghy sank two weeks ago. They line the pockets of the criminal gangs engaged in people smuggling and human trafficking. And they undermine public confidence in our whole immigration system.

These crossings need to stop, but the Conservatives’ Anti-Refugee Bill – officially the ‘Nationality and Borders Bill’ – will only make things worse.

Priti Patel likes to talk tough about this, and keeps putting forward ever more cruel and impractical proposals, from housing refugees on North Sea oil rigs to building a floating wall in the Channel. But in her two years as Home Secretary, she has only made the problem worse.

We know that the best way to stop refugees taking dangerous and irregular journeys to the UK is by providing safe and legal routes to sanctuary instead. Yet Priti Patel has closed them down.

Last year, she ended the scheme for resettling unaccompanied refugee children from elsewhere in Europe after bringing just 480 to the UK. This year, she closed the UK’s three biggest resettlement schemes and replaced them with a single much smaller scheme. She has also changed the rules to make it harder for people to claim asylum in the UK – yet another example of this Conservative Government breaking international law.

The UK has a proud history of providing sanctuary"

The result? The dangerous Channel crossings have increased.

The Government’s Anti-Refugee Bill, now before Parliament, doubles down on that failed approach.

It does nothing to expand safe and legal routes for refugees – despite amendments the Liberal Democrats tabled to require the Government to do so. It does nothing to tackle the huge backlog of asylum claims, but will actually create even more delays.

It does nothing to increase cooperation with other countries on combating the cross-border smuggling and trafficking gangs. And it does nothing to reverse the Conservative cuts to international aid that will only create more refugees.

Instead, the Bill would make it harder for refugees to claim asylum in the UK and give many of them fewer rights if they are successful. It reduces vital protections for victims of human trafficking and modern slavery, making them less likely to come forward and therefore allowing more criminals to get away with it. And it further undermines the UK’s long-standing commitments under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

The UK has a proud history of providing sanctuary for people forced to flee their homes because of war or persecution. Priti Patel’s Anti-Refugee Bill undermines that tradition. It is fundamentally un-British. And it wouldn’t stop the dangerous Channel crossings. That’s why Liberal Democrats are fiercely opposing it.

The LDHQ Campaigns & Elections Team are running a rolling programme of bulk-buy deals.

This month's bulk-buy deal is on a tabloid.

By doing a tabloid in January you can make sure you start your campaigning in the new year quickly - as you cut down on any need to locally print and can have it sorted ahead of Christmas break.

In early December you will get the new electoral register for 2022, so prep to do an addressed survey to all households alongside the tabloid.

You can either opt in for a bespoke deal with Royal Mail Delivery or to just have your leaflets printed and delivered to you for hand delivery.

When I arrived in London as a teenager, Sir John Major was Prime Minister. I felt a connection with the City. My political views formed, firstly at university, and later whilst living in Islington. I joined the Liberal Democrats.

I was honoured to be elected as the Lead  London Regional Diversity Champion. I continuously  help to increase participation and engagement within our inclusion and diversity teams. I am vocal within Liberal Democrats Members to help represent those underrepresented in the UK Politics. In 2020 I founded the national BLAC Liberal Democrats (Blac Lives Action Committee) with the mission to make heard the voice of Black members within the Party.

Vision

My goals for this role are:

• I want to help provide a platform for better training and promote a programme that supports ethnic minority members to develop their potential, so they are competently able to stand for external and internal elections of office;
• I want to see established an attractive and resilient message that helps to build a strong foundation for the Liberal Democrats to engage in Ethnic Minority communities;
• Within the party, I want to establish a better understanding of Ethnic minority issues on housing, education, LGBT+, heath, crime, etc. This will allow us to better serve the ethnic minority communities at a national and local level.

Dear Lib Dem friends,

I know already you are as keen as I am to improve the experience of people from under-represented groups within the party, particularly people who are not White. May I
thank you now for your excellent attitude, for listening closely to my suggestions on what to do. The improvements are immediately noticeable. Please keep going.

You will have access to information about my decades of experience in the field of equalities and governance inside and outside the Liberal Democrats in my manifesto when you vote, if you are interested to get more information please email me at marisharay4vp@gmail.com.

I was a 100/200m Sprinter. Catastrophe struck in my early 20's when my achilles tendon ruptured. For 20 months I was in a wheelchair. I needed wheelchair-friendly public transport to hospital and the inadequacy of it shocked me. It made me realise that everyone has a choice. When you see something that’s wrong, do you leave it for someone else, or do you fight for change?

I decided to fight for change. I set up a transport company and, eventually, was transporting 5,000 vulnerable children and adults in wheelchair accessible vehicles. I got involved in drafting the Private Hire Vehicles Act and helped lead the campaign for cab safety. I delivered contracts to the 2012 London Paralympics. I was named in the Black Power List.

As a former Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate, I have seen prejudice close-up, within British politics and, sadly, within our party. And I know that I’m not the only one. My experience led me to take time to reflect and then, at Harvard, I learnt from world leaders on race equality, collaborative working, and leadership. I want to translate my experience and learning into change for our party in the UK. As a starting point, we must implement the Alderdice Review recommendations.

The Federal Policy Committee has had a busy autumn, kicking off our next programme of policy development work.

We have spent some time over the last few months trying to understand the party’s key political priorities to win over the voters we need, and the right messages and supporting policies needed to achieve that (recognising that detailed policy is not usually the thing that swings most voters). This has been the starting point for our latest programme of work.

At the heart of this is developing proposals for ‘A fairer society’, where people broadly see the system as fair, and there is much greater economic fairness. We advertised widely for party members to join the policy group to work on this and were very pleased that 255 applied to do so – with similar enthusiasm for other groups. We have appointed Julia Goldsworthy, former MP for Falmouth & Camborne, to lead an excellent group here; the group’s remit and membership can be found (with those for the other groups too) at https://www.libdems.org.uk/policy-working-groups

A second key priority is setting out our vision for a more caring society, also flowing from research into priorities for our key voters. We have appointed Baroness Judith Jolly to lead a policy group developing proposals on this, including responding to the government’s own plans for funding social care, and also incorporating ideas from our own Commission on Carers set up last year by the Leader.

A major interest of both our voters and also councillors, the Young Liberals, and others within the party, is how we can provide more homes and improve the planning system. Cllr Peter Thornton from Cumbria, will lead a group working this through and developing proposals here.

The environment also remains of course a key issue for Liberal Democrat members and voters, and on top of our existing extensive and very impressive proposals for tackling the climate emergency, Richard Benwell is chairing a group developing ideas about the natural environment. This group has been under way for some time, and like the other groups mentioned here, FPC aims to bring proposals from it to autumn conference next year.

Commitment to early years care and education has been a longstanding priority for us and was a major funding commitment at the last General Election. We have appointed Cllr Dine Romero from Bath & NE Somerset to lead a group looking at this area in further detail and to support an updated set of proposals.

The proposals for policy on the whole nature of public debate at the moment, were referred back from Conference in September to FPC. Following further discussion with the movers of the reference back, we plan to bring updated proposals to this spring conference.

FPC received a petition asking us to set up a policy working group on the party’s policy on nuclear weapons; after discussion over a couple of meetings, we do not believe this is a priority area for FPC to focus its attentions at this time, and do not plan to do this.

At the heart of all of this, must lie our party’s underlying principles and values. Our paper setting these out in today’s context, which conference approved in September, resulted in a number of requests to help communicate these more widely across the party and beyond. Some work is under way to do this; in the meantime you might be interested to see this set out at https://www.libdems.org.uk/a21-beliefs-and-values

We have been working to make better links with the groups of party members interested in particular policy areas or groups (in party jargon variously known as SAOs, AOs, party bodies, and others). We have appointed a number of FPC members as part of the Party Bodies Forum, set up this year to bring these groups together, to facilitate two-way discussion with them about policy development progress and plans. Over the summer, for example, we were glad to consult the PBF about our planned future policy development programme set out above, and looking forward to continuing to work more closely with them in the future.

As party members will hopefully will be aware, we are currently consulting all members about the future direction of our policy on Europe (an email was sent to all members last week). Conference has made the decision for us to support a long-term aim of being a member of the EU again, and a policy group chaired by Duncan Brack is developing proposals on a rolling basis in support of this. Conference this autumn approved plans for immediately improving cultural and educational ties, and the group is currently working on plans for our future trading relationship, to bring to Conference next year. Please do contribute to the consultation.

FPC is always keen to promote as many party members as possible participating in policy discussion, and we have been discussing some other ideas for taking this forward which we hope will come to fruition over the next few months.

Last and by no means least, we have begun planning for the manifesto for the next General Election, which could be held as early as spring 2023. We have appointed (Lord) Dick Newby to chair a group responsible for leading its drafting, which FPC will discuss regularly over the coming months. It’s worth perhaps saying that because of the way we as a party develop policy, the main task of writing our manifesto is to shape our existing ideas and well-established body of policy into an appealing pitch to the electorate – and not, as it’s sometimes seen, especially in other parties, as simply starting building a whole new set of policies from a blank sheet of paper.

We’re conscious that the actual proposals in our manifesto document at the last General Election, and ones before that, were very well received, taking plaudits from a wide range of different directions for its proposals both for the health of the economy generally, and specifically to help the least well off. It scored less well amongst those who didn’t actually sit down to read it, in setting out an appealing top line message which drew its proposals together. This will be an important priority this time, and in support of this a small sub-group of FPC members will be doing some intensive work, working with others in the party, to look at some of the likely key messaging challenges of the next General Election, to feed into this.

So as you can tell this is mostly a time of starting off new projects for policy development. Over the next few months FPC and the policy working groups will be working hard on these, so that we can bring proposals on them to Conference to debate in 2022. Our firm aim is that we should develop and bring forward proposals which help us appeal to key voters.

The Liberal Democrats have today called for urgent measures to support the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV), including a formal return and improvement of the shielding programme.

The Government has so far failed to announce any specific measures for those who were classed as CEV in spite of their increased risk of serious illness from Covid. It comes after two cases of the newly discovered ‘Omicron’ variant of Covid were reported in the UK.

People who are clinically extremely vulnerable are incredibly worried"

Daisy Cooper

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a five-point action plan to support the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable. This would include the return of official centralised guidance, so that the 3.8 million vulnerable people on the ‘Shielded Patient List’ have clarity on what is safe for them to do and where to seek the tailored clinical advice and support they need.

After a successful first year, where we donated £4000 to campaigners across the country, applications for the 2022 elections Campaign Innovation Fund are now open.

This year, we are focusing on digital campaigning, to find out the best way to campaign online.

Today is Carers Rights Day, and the Liberal Democrats are continuing to stand up for carers.

The Covid pandemic has shown that we are a nation of carers. But it’s also shown how, for this Conservative Government carers are nothing more than an afterthought.

From Ministers’ abject failure to protect people in care homes, to their refusal to raise Carer’s Allowance when they put up Universal Credit, carers have been forgotten and ignored again and again.

People looking after their loved ones are doing an important job and making big sacrifices every day. They deserve more support.

So we are still pressing the Government to raise Carer’s Allowance – currently less than £10 a day – to help the millions of carers facing financial hardship this winter.

We are also continuing to push for emergency funding to give carers a break. Many haven’t had a rest from their caring responsibilities since the pandemic hit, and many are simply exhausted.

Boris Johnson is refusing to give carers the support they deserve - no increase in carers allowance and no proper breaks.

He's letting down the millions of people who care for a loved one.https://t.co/ETBlJ0bpPC

— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) September 9, 2021

And last week, Ed Davey won the fight to allow disabled young people to access their own money previously locked away in Child Trust Funds.

Last year I told the Prime Minister about Mikey – a young man locked out of his own Child Trust Fund because he’s severely disabled.

I’m delighted that we’ve finally secured a promise from the Government to change the law and end this injustice.pic.twitter.com/qilZuwVPpD

— Ed Davey MP 🔶🇪🇺 (@EdwardJDavey) November 18, 2021

There are new fights we’ve taken up on behalf of carers too.

Many carers are never identified as carers and told about their rights, so Daisy Cooper tabled an amendment to the Health and Care Bill that would put a duty on the NHS to identify and support unpaid carers. Sadly the Government didn’t accept Daisy’s amendment in the House of Commons, but we will keep pushing for carers to be included in the Bill as it goes through the Lords.

Finally, we have listened to disabled young people and their carers who are very worried about the Government’s plans to take Universal Credit away from them.

New rules due to come in next month would prevent disabled people aged 16 or over from receiving Universal Credit if they are in education, unless they have been assessed as having “limited capability for work” before starting their education.

Ministers hoped to get the change through without any debate or scrutiny in Parliament, but Wendy Chamberlain and Mike Storey have tabled motions in both the Commons and the Lords to stop them.

These are all difficult but important fights. We're proud that Liberal Democrats are fighting to make sure that carers are not taken for granted any longer.

I am an established Race Equality and Diversity campaigner with a Business Management background and an established record of striving for Race Equity across the Party. In the course of my 25 years as Party member I have served on the Federal Policy Committee, International Relations Committee, been Secretary of the PCA, vice chair of EMLD and served as a Regional Diversity Champion. I am also Secretary of Lib Dem Friends of India. It is this personal history that accounts for my reputation as a Community Champion within the Party and my high profile amongst BME communities nationally.             

In 2001 at the request of the then Party President Lord Dholakia I chaired the first Race Equality Group in the Party and produced a report with guidelines on what the Party should do to attract   support from Ethnic Minority (BME) Communities. It recommended establishing an Ethnic Minority Election Task Force (EMETF).This was done and soon after we elected our first BME MP. Unfortunately EMETF was killed off by the Party machine.

In 2018 Lord Alderdice undertook a comprehensive review on the same subject. His study concluded “Despite our clear liberal values, rejecting all forms of prejudice and inequality, the Party has failed to engage sufficiently with BaME communities”

That is precisely what I and others who are campaigning to make our Party more inclusive have been saying for years. By and large our messages have fallen on deaf ears. That is why several talented highly capable politically active BME individuals became disillusioned, felt undervalued and left the Party. But I chose to stay on and fight. I am glad I did because I now have one more chance to change things. So I promise you if I am elected Vice President and charged with the responsibility of making Lib Dems more appealing to individuals from BME Communities I will do everything in my power to achieve that outcome - with your support of course.

I will engage with local parties in England, Scotland and Wales to develop a plan to attract individuals and groups from BME Communities and make them Lib Dem ambassadors within their respective catchment areas. I know this can be done because I did it in Watford.                                                                                                                                                                       

This is the three point plan I will use to start making Lib Dems a more  Inclusive Party

1. Establish a BME Engagement Consultative Group made up of BME Councillors and Activists from England, Scotland and Wales and task the group with devising a plan to implement the recommendations in the Alderdice Review
2. Device a BME Engagement Framework for local Parties in our Target Constituencies and in Councils with significant BME populations
3. In consultation with the Leaders Office, Campaign Team and Communications Office produce a special BME Media plan I know I can rely on our members to help me achieve our common inclusivity goals for the Party.

Time and time again, we hear that the reality of what ethnic minorities face in our party and in our politics does not match up to the principles we hold, and, as a party committed to equality, it is vital that we apply our values and make a change. I will provide the positive vision and leadership we need to move forward and make that happen.

As a former Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate, I have seen prejudice close-up, within British politics and, sadly, within our party. And I know that I’m not the only one. My experience led me to take time to reflect and then, at Harvard, I learnt from world leaders on race equality, collaborative working, and leadership. I want to translate my experience and learning into change for our party in the UK. As a starting point, we must implement the Alderdice Review recommendations.

I was honoured to receive endorsements from members across the country, including Baroness Sal Brinton, Chris Lucas, Cllr Sarah Cheung Johnson, Tom Brake, Layla Moran MP, Baroness Alison Suttie and Sarah Green MP.

If I were elected as your Vice President, we could:

• Promote a collaborative, positive working style to take the party from debate to action
• Implement the Alderdice Review recommendations at every level of the Liberal Democrats
• Help local parties and SAOs engage and campaign with diverse communities to win elections in the country

It is time for change. As a party, we need to attract ethnic minority talent, promote equality and opportunity for all.

All about me

I was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and grew up on a council estate in London. I was in foster care for a short time. I studied at Oxford and most recently, Harvard.

I joined the party due to my opposition to the Iraq War and since then, I have run for council, London Assembly and as a target Parliamentary seat candidate in 2017. That year I was appointed the Lib Dems’ Shadow Refugee Minister and debated Nick Ferrari on LBC about the policy to allow in Syrian child refugees.

I am a regular contributor to BBC Asian Network and has appeared in The Guardian, the Evening Standard, ITV News, and the BBC, amongst others. Professionally, I am a campaigner working in healthcare policy.

Fun fact: Barack Obama follows me on Twitter! You can too at: @amnajahmad. You can also join my Facebook group - Amna for VP or email me at amnaforvp@gmail.com.

A campaigning Vice President, for a campaigning Party

I was a 100/200m Sprinter. Catastrophe struck in my early 20's when my achilles tendon ruptured. For 20 months I was in a wheelchair. I needed wheelchair-friendly public transport to hospital and the inadequacy of it shocked me. It made me realise that everyone has a choice. When you see something that’s wrong, do you leave it for someone else, or do you fight for change?

I decided to fight for change. I set up a transport company and, eventually, was transporting 5,000 vulnerable children and adults in wheelchair accessible vehicles. I got involved in drafting the Private Hire Vehicles Act and helped lead the campaign for cab safety. I delivered contracts to the 2012 London Paralympics. I was named in the Black Power List.

But throughout my life I experienced racism and saw it blight so many people’s lives. I have spent years fighting racism.

I provided a campaign bus for Operation Black Vote and helped thousands to register to vote. In 2015 I was the founding chair of the Liberal Democrat Campaign for Race Equality. We established the RDC to develop ethnic minority candidates.

I was disappointed that, after John Alderdice’s report on race diversity, the party did nothing. So when the Thornhill Review was set up I, as Chair of LDCRE, sent in a submission.

We need to recognise that the ethnic minority vote is so substantial, that we cannot win without ethnic minority communities. If you ignore 40% of a constituency you are giving your local party a target of reaching 60% of the white vote.

Our recommendations were published in the Thornhill Review. Still the party failed to implement it. I then piloted an amendment to the strategy motion at the federal conference and committed the Party to act.

That is why I’m now standing for Vice-President: if elected I will make the party implement that strategy. John Alderdice and Dorothy Thornhill are supporting me.

I have rolled up my sleeves to show how it’s done – in just the last year I helped Anton Georgiou win a 29% swing in Brent; helping Nancy Jirira win Fortune Green, building support for Gareth Roberts in Hounslow and helping demolish the Labour vote in the C&A by-election. I have advised the Scottish Lib Dems and campaigned in Wales.

Change can't wait

I will:

Ensure that the Party implements the Alderdice and Thornhill reviews.  I will make the party launch a national campaign to encourage and assist local parties to:

• reach out to ethnic minority communities
• include these communities in canvassing targets during elections
• establish their key concerns and campaign on them
• continue to campaign for the rights of women and LGBT+ ethnic minorities
• recruit ethnic minority members
• gain ethnic minority votes and make our party better reflect the diversity of the society we wish to represent

I will give you the tools to become more diverse, confident, and vote-winning.  For further information see my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1118017102271737

Change can’t wait. I hope you will vote for me for Vice-President.

Vision

My goals for this role are:

• I want to help provide a platform for better training and promote a programme that supports ethnic minority members to develop their potential, so they are competently able to stand for external and internal elections of office
• I want to see established an attractive and resilient message that helps to build a strong foundation for the Liberal Democrats to engage and campaign with in Ethnic Minority communities
• Within the party, I want to establish a better understanding of Ethnic minority issues on housing, education, LGBT+, heath, crime, etc. This will allow us to better serve the ethnic minority communities at a national and local level

Believe

This is the part I say how good I am…

• I understand how the party works
• How to deliver change
• I have extensive experience of campaigning
• I can lead to make change happen

I have been a member of the party coming up to 20 years. In that time, I have been a Town/Borough councillor for over 11 years; I have been a Branch, Constituency, Regional and English Party chair.

I understand how the party works, how to engage the different parts of the party to ensure we achieve change together, and I have a record of leading change at State and regional levels.

I am also an experienced campaigner overseeing and running a number of local campaigns and being involved in national campaigns.

Implemented change, in a party with a large volunteer base requires this to be done collaboratively. Therefore, imposing change or a standalone solution I believe won’t work.

Achieve

Like anyone else, ethnic minority members are concerned about their environment, health service, climate change etc., and they want to do something about it. To help them make a difference (many) will need training in developing members skill set will help to make them serious contenders as candidates up for selections. I want to help get that developed and delivered.

Because every local, regional, and state party has diversity officers, a structure exists to communicate and work with officers. Such a structure can be used to identify issues, gather data and share information. As a party, we need to further develop the right message, and this will require working with a number of SAO’s, ethnic minority members and with the Head office. Again, bring people together.

Prior to Lord Alderdice’s report there were two other reports done looking at the issues relating to ethnic minorities in the party. Those reports were not really implemented. In fact, as a summary you can say that Lord Alderdice’s effectively said that if those reports were implemented most of the issues would be addressed. Consequently, it’s a priority for me to implement the recommendations in Lord Alderdice’s report.

You, as Liberal Democrat members, have asked me for a diverse, inclusive party that represents all sections of all our communities well.

I am standing to be your Vice President for minority communities to promote inclusion and to eliminate racism and other discrimination from inside our party, to inspire more and more candidates from under-represented groups to stand and to inspire all of us to engage on a sustained and substantive basis with all of the UK’s communities so that we eliminate exclusion and disadvantage.

I successfully campaigned for an inquiry, the Alderdice Inquiry, to take place and was involved with bringing those with evidence of racism to the inquiry. I will not only see that its findings are implemented, but also will work to ensure that we have a diverse party. Since it was completed my attention has continued to be on the grassroots of the Liberal Democrats. Few if any understand these issues in such detail.

I am your “Mastermind” special subject candidate on racism in the Liberal Democrats and I will work to dismantle it in a liberal way, for racism is not liberal.

I have worked: in scientific research and IT in industry and academia, in changing a blue-chip company’s working culture throughout its global supply chain to deliver measurable benefit, as a leading councillor in England’s then fastest improving council, for the NHS on equalities and inclusion and on governance: in education including higher education, the Liberal Democrats, charitable trusts, NHS governance and democratic accountability, economic development and regeneration and on public policy development in health, regeneration, the regional economy and other related fields. My dad was involved with the civil rights movement in the US and my mum’s family with the Indian Independence movement. We all work for major change. I was brought up in London and have lived in London, South Cambridgeshire, Cambridge, Paris, a provincial French city and a sparsely populated part of rural France. I spent much of my teenage school holidays accompanying extended family members who travelled for work in South Asia and have friends all over the UK.

My dad was involved with the civil rights movement in the US and my mum’s family with the Indian Independence movement. We all work for major change. I was brought up in London and have lived in London, South Cambridgeshire, Cambridge, Paris, a provincial French city and a sparsely populated part of rural France. I spent much of my teenage school holidays accompanying extended family members who travelled for work in South Asia and have friends all over the UK.

For 8 years, I was a leading local councillor in one of the most diverse Liberal Democrat-run local authorities. I am successful both in inspiring candidates from under-represented groups and have been remunerated to engage with diverse communities both for local government and the National Health Service.

I was recruited to an NHS Trust Board to address exactly these sorts of issues, a role which few have held in general let alone in the Liberal Democrats, where we are so much in need of culture change.

This is the only political party I have been involved with and I have held many, many different roles within the party over decades.

If you want to tackle racism inside our organisation to make it more diverse, whether institutional or individual, because that’s just not liberal, give me your first preference vote.

Thank you for your attention.

Your vote matters and is a Vote for Hope, Action and Transformation.

From when I arrived in London as a teenager, Sir John Major was Prime Minister and I felt a connection with the city. Firstly at university, and later whilst living in Islington, my political views formed and I joined the Liberal Democrats.

Recently I was honoured to be elected as your London Regional Diversity Champion. With considerable success I helped increase participation and engagement within our inclusion and diversity teams. In 2020 I founded the national BLACK Liberal Democrats with the mission to make heard the voice of Black members within the Party.

Making the Party relevant to the UK’s diverse groups of voters will be key to any Liberal Democratic success and will unlock our future.

I will call out injustice and celebrate success as I find them. I will help build our Party back.
I guarantee to make our Party better reflect the diversity and inclusion of the communities we serve.
I will empower our members to fully participate in the setting of our regional agendas. I will encourage a participatory approach to decision making and foster a shared ownership of decisions. I will use patience and understanding when working with people from diverse communites, age groups, ethnicity and nationalities.
And not forget the needs of young adults and marginalized communities.

I care deeply about our unique and diverse communities and will continue to work tirelessly for the well-being of society. We are surrounded by local, regional and global change. Our work-ethics and life-styles are rapidly changing. I will bring our LibDem values to the fore when campaigning and raise awareness of what we stand for.
Following COP26, what is needed is meaningful engagement with our communities through which we can empower and build more inclusive Britain, a caring Britian fit for the 21st Century, in a safe and sustainable world.
So my vision for London is a place based on a thriving and sustainable economy, where the air is fit to breathe, a place driven by green innovation, where every child, man and woman reaches their full potential.

I believe London can maintain a global presence, founded on circular and carbon economies made widely available through our expertise in, and access to, green finance.
In this country I believe a silent majority has for too long been ignored. Taken for granted. Let us give these people a voice. Let us once again be the voice of the people. Of all the people. Promoting inclusion is everyone's responsibility. Together we can make a difference.
It is vital we truly reflect and understand the needs of our region. I can be that agent of change and with your support, advance the understanding of what we, the Liberal Democrats, represent. And gain electoral success.
I ask for your first preference vote.

Together reclaim the future. Together Achieves More.
Vote me as your First Preference.

Our campaign has already got off to a flying start in the by-election caused by Owen Paterson’s disgrace.

The local party had already made impressive progress in this May’s local elections. They secured a clear second place and created many marginal Conservative-Liberal Democrat wards.

Now we have a brilliant opportunity to turbo-charge that growth in our support and to see just how angry voters are about sleaze and sewage. Ed Davey is already on his third visit there.

Whether it’s by helping in person, on the phones or with your wallet, please do help too. You can donate online or sign up to volunteer. Thank you!

Thank you also to Simone Reynolds and Simon Drage, respectively our candidate and agent for the Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election. More details here.

Have your say in how the party is run

There are two musts for how our party is run. It must be run in a way that is true to our values, and it must be run in a way that helps us work together to be successful.

Sadly, our 2019 General Election Review (the Thornhill Review) found major flaws in how the party operated. That cost us votes and seats.

Since its publication, the Federal Party has been making many changes in response, as I’ve covered in previous reports. But there is still important work to do.

One of the Review’s key findings was about the Federal Board itself:

There is no clear ‘leadership team’ where the three pillars of the party – political, operational, federal – can make cohesive decisions, simply, quickly, and effectively. The Federal Board – 40+ members – is not, cannot, and should not be that team.

So the Board is consulting on options for Board reform, and will put one or more to Spring Conference for members to make a decision.

As part of this we are running a consultation survey. Please do give your views via the consultation survey here.

You can also read this summary of our current arrangements.

The survey will close on Wednesday 8th December 2021.

Why we must stand more candidates in council elections

Earlier this month I wrote for the party website about the importance of increasing the number of council elections we contest: “The merits of standing in a council by-election we have a chance of winning are obvious. So too for wards which we might hope to win in the future and where the by-election is a chance to accelerate that progress. But there are also huge benefits in standing even in wards that we are not likely to win for a very long time yet (if ever).”

You can find out what those benefits are in my full piece here.

Voting underway for Vice President

Voting is open in the election for our Vice President responsible for working with ethnic minority communities. If you’ve not yet received a ballot either by email or post, please email elections@libdems.org.uk and the team will be happy to help.

The six candidates manifestos are on the party website, along with details of the hustings.

Members have until noon on Friday 10th December to vote.

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Voting opened today in the election for our first ever Vice President responsible for working with ethnic minority communities. Over the next few days, members will receive an email or letter advising them of how to vote for the candidate of their choice and members have until 1200 on Friday December 10th.

You can read the manifestos the candidates have produced for the election here:

Amna Ahmad.

Roderick Lynch.

Tahir Maher.

Julliet Makhapila.

Rabi Martins.

Marisha Ray.

Candidates appear here in alphabetical order by surname.