Sarah Olney

Brexit chaos could change the political map of Britain

The Liberal Democrat victory in the Richmond Park byelection could be just the first of many electoral aftershocks that could reconfigure the electoral landscape Good news had been in short supply for Lib Dems over the previous 18 months, so when some hugely encouraging data arrived at their byelection headquarters in Richmond last Wednesday morning, the reaction was one of excitement coupled with scepticism. Party strategists had just received the results of internal polling showing they had pulled ahead of Zac Goldsmith, the former Tory MP turned independent, with 24 hours to go until voting began.

PMTH
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Sarah Olney

The Lib Dems have rediscovered their byelection mojo – can they capitalise?

arah Olney's win may be unlikely to affect Brexit, but her party's victories in Richmond Park and elsewhere point towards a new chapter 'Richmond Park was a byelection made in heaven for the Liberal Democrats. Their opponent - a prominent leave campaigner whose father had funded the anti-EU referendum party in the 1990s, and who upset many of those of a small "l" liberal disposition with the style and tone of his London mayoral campaign in the spring. The constituency was a Lib Dem stronghold for over 40 years (until the vote collapsed, like almost everywhere else, in last year's general election) where over 70% of voters had voted to remain in the EU, putting it in the top 10 pro-EU constituencies. Local Labour voters were long used to voting tactically for the local Liberal Democrat. All the party had to do was to turn this unusually propitious set of circumstances to its advantage.

JC
3 Dec 2016
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Imagine this!

Can you imagine the impact of a Lib Dem win in Richmond Park on Thursday? It's not just the impact it will have on our party, it's the message it will send to the government on Brexit.

26 Nov 2016
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Tim Farron arriving at Autumn 2016 Conference

WATCH: Tim Farron cheered on Question Time

A few noisy, boorish right wingers could not mask the audience appreciation for Tim Farron's reasonable, moderate and generous-spirited message on Question Time on Thursday night. As has unfortunately become the norm, some over exuberant brexiteers booed everything he said. They showed themselves up.

CL
25 Nov 2016
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Brexit: You broke it, you fix it.

It's now five months since the EU referendum on June 23rd: plenty of time, you might have thought, for a government which appointed ministers committed to Brexit to key posts to have developed a strategy. Yet confusion reigns in Whitehall and Westminster. The clock is ticking towards Theresa's pledged date of invoking Article 50 by the end of March. Yet the government seems more focused on fighting a court case to limit the involvement of Parliament than in setting out its preferred future relationship with our neighbours on the European continent. This is a degree of incompetence about which we should be angry, on top of our anger at the false promises and illusions of the Leave campaign. Some, at least, of the leaders of the Leave campaign should have had a strategy for negotiating a new relationship with the EU. But the coalition of ideologues and opportunists who led the Leave campaign only agreed on what they did not want. Economists for Britain wanted unilateral free trade; Professor Tim Congdon is stil

LWW
23 Nov 2016
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UK Lib Dem news

Munira Wilson speaking in the House of Commons
Latest UK News

Protecting children from sexual abuse

No child should ever have to experience sexual abuse. These are horrifying crimes that cause so much harm to the children who are victims. We will keep up the pressure so that the action needed to make our communities safe all children finally happens.

MW
8 Jan 2025
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High Peak Liberal Democrats AGM Notice 7.30pm, 4 December 2024

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