A press release from Liberal Democrat HQ brings the news:
The Liberal Democrats last night secured assurances from the Government in the House of Lords that the wide-ranging emergency powers in the Coronavirus Act will be compliant with human rights law, and that Ministers will have to justify keeping the powers in force.
At a meeting of the Federal Board this evening, it was decided to postpone our Leadership Election. Find out until when and why here:
Not only are we going through what could become the country's biggest crisis since 1945, but we're also entering a very new world that will persist once the immediate crisis is over.
Our health and social care workers are going above and beyond during the coronavirus crisis - we want to say thank you.
The NHS takes care of us and keeps us safe every day.
Coronavirus is affecting every part of our lives and is already putting a huge strain on the NHS and NHS workers. We want to say thank you to the people working so hard to keep us all safe.
In these troubling times, I've found that the best thing that I can do to ease my worry over what the future holds is to reach out to others and offer assistance.
This week, the UK has gone into lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Those of us who can are staying at home and adapting to a new way of life, where we work from home, have hobbies at home and socialise only through video calls.
Coronavirus demonstrates how valuable our public service broadcasters are
Responding to the news that the BBC News is to suspend its plans to cut 450 jobs, Liberal Democrat DCMS spokesperson Daisy Cooper said:
"It is in times like this that our public service broadcasters demonstrate most clearly just how valuable they are. The BBC is right to ensure it remains properly staffed.
Ed Davey challenges government to roll out support package for self-employed
Today Ed Davey, Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats, challenged the Chancellor to "move as fast as possible" to roll out a financial support package for the five million self-employed people in the UK.
In an Urgent Question in the House of Commons, Ed Davey highlighted that the self-employed, who are excluded from current financial support for businesses and employees, are under "real stress" and are "literally running out of money" as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
Liberal Democrats are fighting to ensure that no-one gets forgotten as this crisis continues.
Last week, the Government set out a package of financial measures to support UK workers, highlighting just how threatening coronavirus is to our economy and our society.
As soon as these measures were announced, Liberal Democrats stated our concerns that far too little was being provided to help the self-employed through this crisis. Days later, and no new support has been announced by the Government.
Each day the govt fails to protect the self-employed, many get closer to irreparable damage to their livelihoods.
We, with cross-party support, have written to Rishi Sunak calling for urgent action to support the 5 million self-employed people in the UK. https://t.co/nDU6VF8zMS
There are five million self-employed people in the UK. These are our construction workers, our childminders and our delivery drivers.
Each day that we fail to take action to protect the self-employed, millions of people remain worried and unsure of how they are going to support themselves or their families. Leaving them with no reliable safety net is unacceptable.
Ministers cannot keep hiding from the insecurity these individuals have been put in by the coronavirus crisis. It is not good enough to say it is "operationally difficult" to pay them.
The Liberal Democrats have put down amendments to the Government's coronavirus legislation to support the self-employed. They are:
increasing the weekly rate of Statutory Sick Pay from £94.25 to £220
guaranteeing 80% of self-employed individuals' earnings, up to £35,000
Today, MPs will debate the Government's emergency Coronavirus Bill.
The Coronavirus crisis is an unprecedented threat, leaving the most vulnerable in our communities at risk. People across the country are rightly worried about their loved ones. This is a national emergency and emergency powers are clearly necessary to keep individuals and communities safe from the virus.
Women are disproportionately negatively affected by negative prison sentences. Let's make our justice system fairer.
The Government's analysis shows that they lead to higher rates of reoffending than community sentences. The President of the Prison Governors Association has described them as "pointless". They need to end for both men and women.
