Author: Web Secretary

In lights of Chancellors Healey’s budget, the Liberal party believes some of the announcements made were bold; however, haven’t gone far enough in terms of being radical.

The party welcomes some of the announcements made, most notably on the reform of Business Rates – by increasing threshold at which businesses start paying, from 12,000 to 18,000 as well as the devolution of Business rates down to local government at 100%, by the end of the decade. Furthermore, the party also welcomes the news that unpaid carers will not lose their entire Carers allowance, if they earn more than £204 a week after tax. Moreover, in terms of the crippling energy costs that are unfortunately blighting millions of businesses and households, the chancellor made some necessary measures to remedy the aforementioned: most notably cutting VAT on electricity bills beyond April to July as well freezing fuel duty again to July.

However, despite some of above measures being welcome, the party still believes that the Chancellor could have gone further and thus been more radical.

In the short-term, the party would like to have seen Capital Gains Tax increased in line with Income Tax/Dividends Tax (however, allow for Inflationary Gains, to prevent the detrimental impact on entrepreneurs). Moreover, the party would like to have seen the Personal Tax Threshold increased to at least 15K, both freeing up 5 million people from paying tax and thus act as an incentive for people to get back into work and thus coming off welfare. Lastly, the party would like to have seen Corporation Tax being reduced for 1.2 million small and medium sized business (over 80% of companies), by lifting the minimum threshold to £100,000. Subsequently, small businesses would pay 15% corporation tax rate, rather than the standard 25%.

Longer term, the party would like to have seen a root and branch reform of the economic system by firstly simplifying the tax system, most notably merging National Insurance with Income Tax. In addition, the party would like to see the reform of Business Rates, Council Tax and Stamp Duty Land Tax into a Land Value Tax. Finally, the party would like to see as well as Business Rates being devolved down to local government at 100%, by the end of this decade, also Council Tax (including fees and charges) at 100% too.

In summary, whilst Labour still has a massive mandate in parliament, the Chancellor could have utilised such an opportunity, by being much bolder and indeed radical in the Budget, instead he chose to be somewhat cautious and indeed, ironically, conservative. Despite the merits of tackling the cost-of-living crisis, the chancellor should have also used the budget to cut Welfare to ensure that work always pays and thus increase the tax base by increasing employment, especially amongst under 25’s. Perhaps, next time round he will realise that Budgets don’t come round all that often and as such should be a bit more liberal in his application!

Economics Spokesperson Kayed Al-Haddad

The UK’s Standing Joint Force Headquarters was established in 2016 to provide a deployable headquarters to fight a war. I was its first legal adviser. I joined in its first days as we built a headquarters which combined military, cross government and partner nation capabilities in all domains of land, sea, air, space and cyber. I still wear the tie with a sense of achievement having belonged to something I thought was very special.

Joining that headquarters was a continuation of what I was already doing. I started on a Monday morning in the spring of 2016. The previous Friday night I had flown back to the UK from the Middle East where I had been deployed. A couple of weeks before that deployment I was working in the NATO headquarters in Kabul. I was continually ready for war, as were thousands of others in 2016. I made significant sacrifices. There was nothing else for it.

Given my experience, I was concerned to hear that ten years later in 2026 we need to be ready for war in 1,000 days. Someone has dropped the ball. We surely need to be ready at all times. It seems obvious that we have lost something over these ten years. We have become complacent, self-indulgent and obsessed with societal fads and opinions which have diverted our attention from what our Armed Forces ultimately exist for: the capacity to rapidly project lawful violence to defend us and our allies. A career in the Armed Forces is now increasingly looked upon as a job. Once that mentality creeps in, failure follows. We end up in this position. That is the retired military officer speaking.

Speaking now as a military lawyer, I have this advice to offer to the government: if there is a real sense that war is looming, we need our best war fighters in uniform. With that in mind, I seek an urgent review of the number of discharges of personnel through administrative processes for misdeeds. War fighters are not necessarily the perfect employees. We should not tolerate poor conduct in the Armed Forces, but there are many options short of discharge available when the primary purpose of our Armed Forces is to safeguard the freedoms and even the very existence of our nation.

Allan Steele WS, Liberal Party Defence Spokesperson

At the Liberal Party Assembly in October 2024 at The Great Barr Hotel, Birmingham we expressed our objections to a windfall tax on the UK banking sector.

The party believes that however pressing a government may believe its own financial position to be, the monies it would receive have come in the first instance from business and domestic customers pockets and accounts.

As such we believe it would be fairer if banks, and private utilities were instead instructed to reduce the fees on services such as those provided to business customers or to provide rebates to customers returning monies back to its source.

We remain concerned that a windfall tax will cause more bank branches to be shut and jobs to be lost whilst increasing lending costs to struggling small businesses and reducing community banking services.

Members of the  Liberal Party met at the Royal Clifton Hotel in Southport on the Saturday 10^th October for our Assembly.

Assembly is not just an opportunity to renew old acquaintances, it give attendees the opportunity  to make new contacts and share insights and experiences in their home communities.

The motioned adopted are accessible below:

Motions Passed at the 141st Liberal Party Assembly Southport – 10th October 2026

A post Assembly Manifesto statement can be read here:

Liberal Party Post Assembly Manifesto October 2026