Category: News

The Liberal Party notes with horror a further round of sectarian violence, this time cantered in the southern Syrian province of Suwayda, and involving Syrian Government forces, Arab tribal forces and Druze groups.

The party condemn the targeted executions and massacres of unarmed Alawite Christian and Druze civilians, including women, the elderly, children and hospital patients in the most recent violence.

We welcome the statement from the Syrian Fatwa Council declaring that the killing and assaulting of civilians is forbidden regardless of sect.

The Syria Government must act to restore order, remove foreign fighters and commit to a multiethnic Syrian government inclusive of all ethnic and religious groups with guaranteed regional autonomy.

The Liberal Party notes media speculation of potential tax rises in the autumn budget to fund a £30 billion budget deficit following revisions to cuts to welfare benefits.

The party believes that sufficient scope exits to properly fund public services, and to create a modest liberal redistribution of wealth through reform of the tax system, and the range of tax rebates, allowances and exemptions.

We support raising the threshold for paying income tax to £20k to allow people to retain more of their earnings and to reduce in work benefits, thus simplifying the benefits system and cutting administration costs.

Work should always pay and that the party strongly believes that the welfare system is there as a safety net rather than a lifestyle choice.

We also believe proper support for small business and the SME’s will allow for sustained growth in the economy by reducing the threshold for VAT registration for small businesses or the self-employed to £150k.

The Liberal Party does not support across the board cuts in disability benefits as have been proposed and then withdrawn by the government.

As a party we do recognise that to shift the vast number of people on sickness benefits, those who are under employed and the hardcore of long-term unemployed back into the world of work, reform of the welfare system is imperative.

The party would recommend a comprehensive programme of counselling, mentoring and aspiration raising to assist people back into the world of work and to match their skills with work opportunities.

We also need to get rid of structural barriers like the 16-hour cap in courses for those who are registered as unemployed, which prevent people gaining life changing skills.

Cllr Steve Radford as leader of the Liberal Party joined volunteers at the Old Hall Street Outreach to Homeless in Liverpool city centre. “It was profound that so many homeless and the volunteers had a history of mental health difficulties. We need to support the self help support groups and over the just few weeks I will be seeing many more groups”

A short video can be viewed here:

The Liberal Party welcomes the debate on raising the tax threshold to £20k in this country.
Doing so would potentially take five million people out of the tax benefits trap, reduce benefits proportionately, and reduce the administrative burden of both tax and benefits.
The tax threshold of £20k will mean more pensioners on limited pensions can take more income home and encourage pensioners to contribute to the economy in part time and flexible work as well as making work worth doing.
We believe that a 5p cut in income tax would be funded by the reduction in the annual expenditure of £48.5 billion in welfare spending on working-age adults, as estimated by The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The party believes further reductions in the basic rate of income tax can be funded by the review and reform of the taxation regime, including tax rebates, allowances and exemption which distort incentives to work.

The Liberal Party notes with horror a third day of the deaths of Palestinian civilians in the vicinity of aid distribution points in southern Gaza.
Local reports suggest between 23 and 31 people have been killed by and a minimum of 79 wounded in the first of these events as crowds moving towards an aid station were fired upon.
The party believes that the decision by the Israeli and US governments to distribute aid via the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is not recognised by the international community has recklessly endangered civilian lives.
The positioning of aid points also supports the Israeli policy of forcing the population of Gaza to vacate the northern part of the territory, with no concern for the availability of humanitarian aid or the provision of medical facilities in the overcrowded and devastate southern region of the strip.

“As Leader of The Liberal Party, I was pleased to be invited to support the vigil by members of Liverpool’s Hindu community to show our disgust at the terrorist attack in Kashmir where Hindu tourists were targeted for murder”.

The Liberal Party welcomes the impending intervention in British Steel to secure the Scunthorpe steel works.

The party believes that any government intervention or public ownership should only last as long as is necessary to find a private sector bidder willing to invest in the business and secure jobs.

Domestic steel production offers security of supply in an era of disrupted world trade and reduces the environmental impact of transporting steel from around the globe.

Furthermore, steel quality control is key to UK construction safety and the Liberal Party demands the 7 recommendations within the 2022 UK steel procurement taskforce report to be fully implemented.

The continuation of the UK steel industry also depends on controlling China’s dumping of steel and subsiding their own steel producers at the expense of other global producers.

The recent history of the UK steel industry also highlights the dangers of letting foreign owners, most recently China, control an industry in which they have only a short-term business interest.

The Liberal Party is pleased to be fielding the following candidates at the elections to be held on the 1st May.

Runcorn and Helsby by-election

Danny Clarke will be representing the party at the by-election on the 1st May.

Having gained valuable experience in the August 2024 general election the party is pleased to be able to support his nomination in the constituency.

Devon

The Liberal Party is pleased to be able to welcome Cllr Andrew MacGregor to the party.

Previously sitting as an Independent on Teignbridge District Council, he will be contesting the Teignmouth seat for the Devon County Council elections.

Worcestershire

The Liberal Party is pleased to announce that Cllr Fran Oborski MBE and Cllr Shazu Miah have crossed to our party and will be contesting seats at May’s local elections for Worcestershire County Council.

Cornwall

Cllr Paul Holmes and Cllr Jean Pollock have both been re-elected to the Carn Brea and Illogan Parish Council’s, whilst Cllr. Jay Latham has been re-elected to the St Mawgan-in-Pydar Parish Council.

Lincolnshire County Council, City of Lincoln

Within the Lincoln City Division Cllr Charles Shaw will be contesting the Ermine and Cathedral Division and Tinashe Chipawe the Carholme Division.

We would appreciate offers of support for candidates in these areas.

Promoted by Stephen Graham on behalf of the Liberal Party, 12 Dayworth Mews, Lundy Lane, Reading, RG30 2RR.

The Liberal Party notes with real concern the recent Spring Statement announced by the Chancellor.

The return to austerity via-a-vis public sector cuts (most notably cuts to welfare) the party deems as being completely and wholly unnecessary and thus a political choice borne out of incompetence.

The Chancellor announced on Wednesday, cuts to Welfare to the tune of £5 billion in order to bring down the Welfare budget and thus cut those people claiming benefits. However, the chancellor fails to realise that by shaving £5 billion off the welfare budget the chancellor is directly impacting those already on the margins of society.

Furthermore, the party notes that the prior budget in October and indeed the chancellors’ fiscal rules has inevitably lead to her having to return to austerity and thus cut public expenditure above and beyond what is necessary. She has essentially boxed herself in through own making!

The Liberal Party would have done a number of things differently in order to not only grow the economy but also reduce the number of those on welfare and thus increase the workforce.

Firstly, it would have reformed Welfare and indeed the tax system in order to increase the number of people in the workforce by simplifying the benefits system (only having three lots of welfare that people can claim). Moreover, it would have also increased the Personal Tax Threshold to at least £20K in order to ensure that work always pays. 

Secondly, it would have reformed the tax system by simplifying it in order to ensure both transparency and fairness. A notable example would have been to get rid of the National Insurance hike on employers by scrapping National Insurance all together and thus merging it with Income Tax. 

Thirdly, the party would have both levied as well as reformed certain taxes on those in society with the broadest shoulder who could have offered to pay so: Council Tax/Business Rates would have been replaced with a Land Value Tax, the Digital Services Tax would have been increased to 10%, the £4 billion bankers bonus tax would have been reinstated and finally, Income Tax and Capital Gains/Dividend Tax would have been equalised at the same rate.

Overall, the party notes that the statement was very disappointing with a real lack of long-term vision and indeed competency.

Kayed Al-Haddad
(The Liberal Party Economics spokesperson)