Liberal Democrats (UK)

Liberal Democrats
Abbreviation	Lib Dems
Governing body	Federal Board
Leader	Ed Davey
Deputy Leader	Daisy Cooper
President	The Lord Pack
Lords Leader	The Lord Newby
Chief Executive	Mike Dixon
Founded	3 March 1988; 37 years ago (1988-03-03)
Merger of	Liberal Party Social Democratic Party
Headquarters	Liberal Democrat Headquarters 1 Vincent Square, London. SW1P 2PN[1]
Youth wing	Young Liberals
Women's wing	Liberal Democrat Women
Overseas wing	Lib Dems Abroad
LGBT wing	LGBT+ Liberal Democrats
Membership (September 2024)	90,000+[2]
Ideology	Liberalism (British) Social liberalism Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre to centre-left
European affiliation	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliation	Liberal International
Northern Irish affiliation	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Colours	Orange
Slogan	For a Fair Deal
Anthem	"The Land"
Conference	Liberal Democrat Conference
Internal political groups	Liberal Reform Social Liberal Forum
Devolved or semi-autonomous branches	English Liberal Democrats (London) Scottish Liberal Democrats Welsh Liberal Democrats Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats
House of Commons	72 / 650
House of Lords	77 / 833
Scottish Parliament	5 / 129
Senedd	1 / 60
London Assembly	2 / 25
Directly elected regional mayors in England	0 / 14
Directly elected single authority mayors in England	1 / 13
Councillors[3][4]	3,196 / 18,645
Councils led[5]	72 / 371
PCCs and PFCCs	0 / 37
Election symbol
Website
libdems.org.uk
Politics of the United Kingdom Political parties Elections

The Liberal Democrats, colloquially known as the Lib Dems, are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1988. They are based at Liberal Democrat Headquarters, in Westminster, and the leader is Ed Davey. They are the third-largest party in the United Kingdom, with 72 members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons. They have 77 members of the House of Lords,^[6] 5 in the Scottish Parliament, 1 in the Welsh Senedd, and more than 3,000 local council seats. The party holds a twice yearly Liberal Democrat Conference, at which policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents,^[7][8][9] the Lib Dems grant all members attending Conference the right to vote on policy, under a one member, one vote system.^[10][11] The party allows its members to vote online for its policies and leadership elections.^[12]

In 1981, an electoral alliance was established between the Liberal Party, a group which descended from the 18th-century Whigs, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a splinter group from the Labour Party. In 1988, the parties merged as the Social and Liberal Democrats, adopting their present name a year later. Under the leaderships of Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy, the party grew in the 1990s and 2000s, focusing its campaigns on specific seats and becoming the third-largest party in the House of Commons. In 2010, under Nick Clegg's leadership, the Lib Dems were junior partners in the Conservative-led coalition government, in which Clegg served as deputy prime minister. Though it allowed them to implement some of their policies, the coalition damaged the party's electoral standing, they lost 48 of their 56 MPs at the 2015 general election, which relegated them to fourth-largest party in the House of Commons. Under the leaderships of Tim Farron, Vince Cable and Jo Swinson, the party refocused as a pro-Europeanist party opposing Brexit. In the 2019 general election, the party garnered 11.5% of the vote on an anti-Brexit platform, but this did not translate into seat gains.^[13] However, the party gained hundreds of local council seats under the leadership of Ed Davey, being successful in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 local elections. This success continued at the 2024 general election, where despite a small vote share increase to 12.2%, the party won 72 seats, their highest ever, and returned to being the third largest party in the House of Commons.

A centrist^[14] to centre-left^[15] party, the Lib Dems ideologically draw upon liberalism and social democracy. Different factions have dominated the party at different times, each with its own ideological bent, some leaning towards the centre-left and others the centre. The party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE), and Liberal International. It calls for constitutional reform, including a change from first-past-the-post voting to proportional representation. Emphasising stronger protections for civil liberties, the party promotes social-liberal approaches^[16] to issues like LGBT rights, drug liberalisation, education and criminal justice. It favours a market-based economy supplemented with social welfare spending. The party has been described as progressive,^[17][18][19] and is internationalist and pro-European,^[20] and supported the People's Vote for UK membership of the European Union and greater European integration, having previously called for adoption of the euro. The Lib Dems have promoted further environmental protections and opposed British military ventures such as the Iraq War.

The Lib Dems have historically been strongest in northern Scotland, south-west London, South West England, and mid Wales. Membership is primarily made up of middle-class professionals and has a higher proportion of university-educated members than other UK parties.^{[not verified in body]} The party is a federation of the English, Scottish, and Welsh Liberal Democrats, and is in a partnership with the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, while still organising there.