Local elections 2023: What are the Liberal Democrat party policies?

Ed Davey says sea change is imminent as Windsor and Maidenhead turns yellow
Local elections 2023
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey toasts encouraging results from the local election
PA
William Mata5 May 2023
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Ed Davey, party leader, has hailed “groundbreaking results” after taking a number of gains up and down the country.

He believes his party is on track for a good showing at the general election, which is likely to be held one year from now. The party has also taken Parliamentary seats from Conservative members in byelections since 2019.

Mr Davey told the Radio 4 Today programme: “These are groundbreaking results for the Liberal Democrats, far exceeding the expectations. We’ve been beating Conservatives, and I think it’s going to get worse.”

But what are the Lib Dem policies?

Local elections 2023
Lib Dem supporters are enjoying a surge in votes
PA

General values

The party has put forward seven key values: liberty, equality, democracy, community, human rights, internationalism, and environmentalism.

A statement from the party’s website reads: “The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.”

The party also says it strives to put its members front and centre in its decision making.

Energy bills

The Lib Dems have said they want to cut household energy bills and they will pay for these reductions by taxing oil and gas companies a higher amount.

NHS

The party wants to hire more doctors, dentists and paramedics. It says that this can reduce waiting times and will also allow NHS staff to be better supported.

Local business protection

Under the policy, the Lib Dems want to extend the government’s support for small businesses on energy costs from its current six months to one full year.

Sewage

Following well-publicised spills of sewage into oceans and rivers, the Lib Dems have pledged to tax water companies into cleaning up the damage.

“Everyone has a right to enjoy the beauty of nature, with wonderful clean rivers and open green spaces,” a statement added.

Potential for the next general election

The full list of policies and fundamentals will be published as part of the Lib Dem manifesto in the run-up to the next election.

The party famously put repealing Brexit as their top policy under Jo Swinson’s leadership but the party lost one seat overall, including the East Dunbartonshire constituency of its leader.

Brexit has not been mentioned this time around.

Since 2019, the Liberal Democrats have gained three seats, all from the Conservative Party, in byelections and now have 14 seats in the Commons.

Given a party needs to win 326 seats to achieve a majority government, it would be an incredible feat for the Lib Dems to pull off an outright victory. Oddschecker data shows bookmakers offer odds of between 250/1 to 900/1 on the party winning the required number.

Therefore, it seems more likely the party could enter the government in a coalition, much like they did in 2010-15 under then-leader Nick Clegg.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in