Category: News

The Liberal Party wishes to be seen as the party for small business and is proud to be launching its Small Business Big Communities Policy Initiative.

Small and micro business, not for profit organisations and charities should be at the heart of our communities to create economic activity, prosperity and employment.

We would welcome feedback from small business owners, people in the charity sector and others within this sector to enhance our policy initiative.

This includes a 4-point plan to support them to reach their full potential within our communities.

The full document can be accessed from here.

On Sunday the 10th November Allan Steel(left) attended the Remembrance Service in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire in his capacity as vice chair of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity in the area and Cllr Bill Lake(right) attended an event in Liverpool.

The Scottish Liberal Party welcomes some of the announcements made by the Scottish Government. However, Scottish Liberals maintain that more could have been done to improve the lives of the Scottish people. The Scottish budget had three main areas of concern: responding to public services badly in need of repair, reducing child poverty and boosting economic growth.

Scottish Liberals welcome the reversal of the two child benefit cap, increase in NHS spending and no change to the income tax rates .

Scottish Liberals would have liked to have seen an increase in the personal tax threshold for Scottish taxpayers to at least £15,000, a reform of council tax (to be replaced with a Land Value Tax) and greater fiscal autonomy for Scottish councils to allow them to raise (and reduce) their own taxation without being restrained by Holyrood.

Scottish Liberals note with concern the lack of any real meaningful economic growth in the Scottish economy; Scotland’s economic growth has averaged at 1% over the last 20 years. We call for a more comprehensive set of policies aimed at simplifying the tax system, increasing the proportionality of tax paid by those with the wherewithal and finally, a substantial increase in infrastructure spending across the whole of Scotland. 

Kayed Al-Haddad (Chair, Scottish Liberal Party)

In light of the recent announcement by the Chancellor that the government will have to plug a £22 billion black hole and the subsequent budget on the 30th of October 2024, The Liberal Party notes with concern some of the announcements made by the Chancellor in the lead up to the budget.

The Liberal Party Economics Spokesperson Kayed Al-Haddad outlines an alternative 4 step approach to tackling the financial black hole and dealing with the state of the public finances.

Read our response here.

The Liberal Party NEC

Commenting on the Labour party’s decision to increase university tuition fees, Liberal Party leader Cllr Steve Radford asserted:

“After condemning tuition fee increases as immoral and socially divisive, when in power they immediately increased them.

Is there any pledge or campaign they undertook worth a carrot?

To increase equality of opportunity and upskill the economy we Liberals have argued many of the exemptions from inheritance tax should be reduced to fund an education or business startup grant for young people.

We need an economy that goes for growth and expands opportunities for all”.

Cllr Steve Radford
Leader of The Liberal Party

When I served in a NATO headquarters, I recall getting my weekly fix of Scotland through listening to the BBC Scotland’s summary of First Minister’s Questions at the weekend. I confess it was not because I wanted to closely follow every issue. It was solely because I wanted to hear Alex Salmond. I was an RAF legal officer at the time and I therefore had to maintain political neutrality. I was however well known by my colleagues as a liberal and, perhaps aptly, I now lead the Scottish Liberal Party. I opposed Mr Salmond politically, but I was in awe of his performances in the Scottish Parliament. He made everyone else look mediocre, at best. He could receive the most challenging question, play with it, pull it apart and respond with a killer line which resulted in cheers, as opposed to bored ‘hear hears’. Though he bordered on cheerful smugness at points, I found it impossible to resist being impressed. He entertained and caught the imagination. He was the master politician of his generation. Had he joined the Labour Party in his youth and not been obsessed with independence, he would no doubt have been the Prime Minister; and probably a great one. When did we last have one of them? Whatever his talents, he did not persuade me that breaking up the United Kingdom was ever going to be a good idea; that was a bridge too far.

His fall from power was something else I witnessed. I make no comment on his personal standards (other than to note his advocate’s remarks that he was far from perfect), but I detected betrayal and – no doubt – great hypocrisy. Mr Salmond defeated the charges against him (with the able assistance of the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates). It resulted in a political mess and the start of the SNP’s long decline. A film will inevitably be made about him. That is more than can be said for many of those who took pleasure in his troubles.

Allan Steele
Leader, Scottish Liberal Party

The Liberal Party notes with anguish the escalation of violence on the Israeli Lebanese border as the region approaches the first anniversary of the brutal Hamas 7th October attack on Israel

At this point in time the region is as far away from peace as at any point in the last 12 months despite considerable loss of life and destruction.

Whilst Hezbollah has provoked Israel along its northern border for months, the recent wave of assassinations using rigged electronic devices has only served to intensify the conflict and risks drawing Iran directly into the conflict.

After 12 months of death and destruction no party can any longer claim any monopoly on pain or loss. The Liberal Party again calls for an urgent de-escalation in the region and a humanitarian ceasefire to allow the evacuation of civilians and to restore essentials public services.

The Liberal Party NEC

We welcome the apology by the Prime Minister for the systemic failures in national and local government, all of which contributed to an entirely avoidable disaster in a tightknit community.

The completion of this report over 6 years is however only one further step of the process of healing and justice.

Over 4000 buildings in the UK still retain flammable cladding and urgent progress must be made to complete the removal of this from the exterior of buildings. 

We note that the report also does not look to the future and does not deal with the issue of no more high rise buildings, no more gas in flats and the wider issue of the use of cladding in the construction industry. 

The Liberal Party NEC

To the Rt Hon David Lammy MP

The Liberal Party has been a long-term supporter of the campaign for the recognition of the Republic of Somaliland as a sovereign country and it being welcomed into the Commonwealth.

We would urge you to give recognition to the Republic of Somaliland as a functioning stable democracy for the last 30 years and its special relationship with the UK as a former protectorate.

There are long established Somaliland communities in the UK. Many former Somaliland men served in the British Armed Forces and the merchant navy.

The Liberal Party believes wider support for Commonwealth countries and greater dialogue promotes better understanding and co-operations with many sovereign states which values their historic links to the United Kingdom.

Yours Sincerely,
Stephen Graham,
Secretary to the Liberal Party NEC

The Liberal Party views with disgust and anger the continued civil violence and mindless destruction currently gripping several urban areas in the UK.

The party believes that a senseless minority, driven by largely imaginary grievances have exploited contentious issues such as immigration and attempted to vilify asylum seekers and minority groups most specifically, Muslims. 

Those fermenting such actions have become embolden by the previous failure of the police and government to contain protest matches at the tail end of the Covid lockdown and to deal firmly but fairly with quasi-legal assembles and marches.

Whilst social media has been used to mobilise local marches and gathering there is no evidence of a systematic attempt to organise the wave of violence the country is experiencing.

We view with pride the response of many communities caught in the crossfire as they attempt to repair and renew after the senseless destruction of vehicles and property.

Liberal Party NEC