Note: this was written before the election report that was released on the 15/5/20
Luck hasn’t particularly been on the Liberal Democrats side in the past few years. Having been quite shafted at the 2015 election, then the 2017 election, and then the 2019 election, it’s obvious to see why. In that five year period, we’ve gone through four leaders.
It hasn’t been all bad though. The results for us in the Local Elections were our largest gains in over a decade, and the European Elections were our best ever. And there are still silver linings of the 2019 General Election, with our vote share increasing by the largest it ever has. But still, things aren’t looking good for the foreseeable future.
A good starting point would be the General Election. It ended up being pretty poor for the party; we made a net loss of 1 and our leader lost her seat. Why did we do poorly? Well tactical voting for one thing, as it is in every election. Considering Brexit was still the biggest issue, much of our potential vote went towards a remain party/candidate whether we stood down in a seat or not. The other tactical reason in other seats came down to the fears of a Corbyn government. For many people, the election was a choice between the two unpopular figures of Johnson and Corbyn, and a lot of people would rather have had the latter. And as the campaign went on, the Lib Dems became a less and less viable alternative.
So going into the election campaign, it didn’t feel like a strong position to be in. The Lib Dems were a rock in an excruciatingly hard place and it would require a very skilled campaign to do that.
Unfortunately the subsequent campaign wasn’t the best. For starters, it came off quite ‘presidential’ with Jo Swinson put front and centre. Her face was plastered on the side of the ‘battle bus’ and on the ballot paper, the party was called Jo Swinson’s Liberal Democrats. It’s easy to see why this was done – it helps to clearly identify the party leader. Voters should know who they’re potentially putting into number 10 (although this was optimistic). But at the end of the day, adding in the message of “your next Prime Minister” the campaign looked egotistical and put people off.
Another issue with the campaign that was no-ones fault was unfortunately, sexism. I have little to say about this other than the fact that it’s incredibly disappointing that it’s still a part of politics at all and we have to work to remove from every level of politics.
An issue outside of the general election and, probably more important in post-brexit Britain, is party identity. When I’ve spoken to people about politics and the Lib Dems, there generally seems to be a lack of what people identify us with. The Conservatives are seen as the pro- business, traditional party and Labour are the party of workers, unions, and welfare. A lot of people see the Lib Dems as simply the inbetween party, with little else. Obviously we aren’t just that, but a lot of people seem to see us like that, unfortunately.
When Brexit came along, however, it offered us an opportunity: to be the anti-Brexit party. This did seem to help in the European Elections and especially in the summer of 2019 as things came to a boiling point. But it could never really be a long-term identity to hold because at some point Brexit had to end and once it did, what do we do?
Now we get to the leadership question. At the moment the party president Mark Pack and deputy leader Ed Davey are the interim co-leaders until we elect someone else. But the big question there is when? The federal board or the party set the date as May 2021 – a stupid idea. The election was set to take place after the local elections on the 6th of May. Not only is it local elections in councils across the country, you have London elections (for mayor and the Assembly), the Welsh Parliament, and Scottish Parliament. For a lot of Lib Dems, it seems a fantastically stupid idea to go into these all-important elections without a leader. Fortunately the Federal Board was found not to have the power to set the date as May 2021, but there’s still no solid plan for when the election will take place.
So how do you fix these problems? Well let me, a lowly member of the Lib Dems for a year and a half, offer my two cents.
Top of the list: get the leadership election done. A new leader is the best starting point the Lib Dems can have to move towards success. For me personally, that leader needs to be someone who can start the party afresh and move away from the recent history of the coalition. Quite frankly, it’s holding us back. Fortunately, only three of the party’s MPs were around for the coalition, and two of them have ruled themselves out of the leadership race. So that leaves plenty of room for any new leader to wipe the slate clean. A leadership election should take place as soon as realistically possible. Obviously Coronavirus seems like a huge obstacle but it really shouldn’t be. Because of that ever-so-useful thing called the internet, Hustings for candidates could be held entirely online to avoid large gatherings and already most of the voting in party elections is done online so that’s another plus.
Another fix is to move on from Brexit. It’s ‘done’ and we are properly out at the beginning of 2021 (whether a deal has been reached or not). The focus should move from arguing to be in the EU towards getting us the best deal we can in the position the country is now in, whether it’s EFTA, or something else. And that’s not to say that our internationalism should be abandoned at all. In the long term, if Brexit does go to sh*t, we should avoid adopting a smug ‘I told you so!’ stance and instead be pragmatic and work to fix the problems that arise. A rejoin policy should be held back until circumstances are good enough that it’s a viable policy. At minimum this is probably about 15-20 years, but it could be a whole while longer.
What these two ideas also tie into is building a proper party identity. As I’ve said, a new leader gives us the chance to wipe the slate clean; move on from the past decade of politics that haven’t been the best to us. This opportunity should be used to show people that we aren’t simply the middle party sandwiched between Labour and the Tories, but to put us forward as a genuine alternative to the two-party duopoly that this country has had. To do this, we should emphasise policies that stand us out from them. Electoral reform is at the top of that policy list. The Tories definitively do not support it and as much as Labour say they support it, they always seem to pass it by when they get a chance to push it through. We have always supported as a party, but I believe it should a the biggest part of any election campaign. Another idea could be a UBI ( Universal Basic Income) which both parties have written off but is currently enjoying a wave of support, especially within the Lib Dems.
There’s still five years to the next election, and we’re in some pretty exceptional circumstances right now with Coronavirus. We’ve got a lot of time as a party to start learning from our mistakes and put ourselves in a better position for that time. The local elections in 2021 are the first elective hurdles in our way, so lets make sure we’re ready for them.
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