Liberal Democrats (UK)

The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, is a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. The party was founded in 1988 from a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. It was the third-largest party in the House of Commons from 1992 to 2015 before it was surpassed by the Scottish National Party and it has been again since 2024. The party was in a coalition government with the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2015. It has been led by Ed Davey since 2020. 

The Liberal Democrats are strong supporters of the European Union, as well as environmentalism and they are in favour of creating a new British House of Commons which is elected using proportional representation. They also disagree with Britain being a part of conflicts like the Iraq War. The party also promotes social liberalism and has long supported LGBTQ+ rights. 

The party has 72UK Election Results 2024 Retrieved 11th July 2024. out of 650 seats in the House of Commons, 84 out of 783 seats in the House of Lords, 16 out of 73 British seats in the European Parliament, 5 out of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 1 out of 60 seats in the Welsh Assembly.

In elections, the party usually gets the most votes in places like northern Scotland, south-west London, south-west England and mid-Wales. Members of the party are mostly more middle-class people who went to university.

Policies

Most Liberal Democrats believe in the following things:
 The House of Commons should be elected using proportional representation.
 There should be elections held for the House of Lords.
 There should be more forms of renewable energy as well as cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

Former party leaders

 Paddy Ashdown (July 1988 – August 1999)
 Charles Kennedy (August 1999 – January 2006)
 Menzies Campbell (January 2006 – October 2007)
 Vince Cable (October 2007 – December 2007) *
 Nick Clegg (December 2007 – May 2015)
 Tim Farron (July 2015 – June 2017)
 Vince Cable (July 2017 – July 2019)
 Jo Swinson (July 2019 – December 2019)

Asterisk (*) means that this person was an interim leader, meaning he was just standing in as leader because the previous leader resigned.

Notes

 References 

 Other websites 
 Liberal Democrats' official website
 Scottish Liberal Democrats 
 Welsh Liberal Democrats
 London Assembly Liberal Democrats 
 Liberal Democrat History Group
 An archive of Liberal/SDP/Liberal Democrat electoral manifestos from 1900–present
 Guardian Unlimited Politics: Liberal Democrats
 Lib Dem Blogs, an aggregator of Liberal Democrat blogs
 Humanist and Secularist Liberal Democrats  / HSLD's page on the party's official website


Category:1988 establishments in the United Kingdom
Category:Liberal parties
Category:Centrist parties