What you need to know ahead of Lib Dem Conference 2023

A staple in the political events calendar, Party Conference season is fast approaching. With a General Election on the horizon, businesses will be looking keenly towards events in Manchester and Liverpool, to learn what priorities might shape the manifesto for a future Government. For the first time since 2015, many will also now be taking a renewed interest in the Liberal Democrats.?

Seasoned on the back of a strong local election result, with 12 councils and over 400 councillors gained, the?Liberal Democrat Conference in Bournemouth is arriving with a renewed sense of buoyancy and an appetite to drive these local results into the next general election. This year, there will also be new faces, following recent by-election wins in the South West and the MP membership now rising to 15 – although, still a shadow of the 62 MPs elected after the 2005 general election.?

What will be the focus?

Party Leader Ed Davey will be focused on demonstrating the Party’s position as a serious contender in national politics and one that is on the up. For a Party that is known for its successes in grassroots campaigning however, it remains to be seen whether these local wins can be translated to a national level – and some of the policy motions on the table for Conference already to point to this tension.?

For those not familiar, the Lib Dem’s policy making process is uniquely tied to Conference and events on the conference floor. Here, official party policy is agreed via motions that can either be submitted by the Federal Policy Committee, or delegates who have the ability to submit a motion with the backing of only ten party members. This year’s motions demonstrate a broad range of themes, from ending period poverty and fast fashion, to broader topics on healthcare and reviving an industrial strategy.?

A motion to watch: Housing

One to look out for is the motion on housing. Building on a policy paper submitted this Spring, the motion supports the scrapping of national housing targets, calling for these to be replaced with "robust, independently-assessed local housing targets" which will encourage local authorities to deliver the right homes in the right places. Whilst this may favour opponents of top-down developments, this stance is likely to draw fire from many of the Party’s younger voters who see home ownership as one of their core issues going into the General Election.

From planning and construction, to passengers and railways

Similarly straddling national and grassroots policy, the Party motion on transport adopts a core focus on regional services in particular backing support for rural buses and the extension of frozen fares. Notably however, the motion also covers the future of rail, expressing support for the establishment of Great British Railways, a “guiding mind for the railway” to put the needs of passengers first. Many will be familiar with this proposal from the Transport Secretary’s 2021 Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail and it is interesting to see support for the Government’s vision.

Whilst we await to see how next week’s motions unfold and play out on the Conference floor, some pre-conference reading will be the draft manifesto “For a Fair Deal” that covers policy from healthcare to transport, energy to agriculture and will be a key read for anyone attending.??

Unable to hold their annual conference in 2022, Bournemouth will be the Party’s first set piece event in two years. No doubt, this will be a pivotal moment to convince prospective voters that the Liberal Democrats are back – and a serious third party contender in national politics.