Lib Dem energy guarantee would cut prices for all households

BBC News reports today's announcement by Daisy Cooper of new Liberal Democrat proposals for reducing consumer energy prices:

Under the scheme every household would receive an "Essential Energy Allowance", which would provide "enough to get by" and be charged at a discounted price.

There would be an extra allowance for families with more children.

Households that need more help, such as those on the lowest incomes, or with extra needs such as charging an electric wheelchair or a home ventilator, would receive a "discount on all their energy".

Cooper said her party estimated it would mean a saving of £100 a year on average for every household, with the poorest 20 per cent of families saving an average of £140 a year. Those in the most need would see the biggest benefits.

She said the plan would lead to longer-term savings for the state as the cost to the NHS alone of dealing with the consequences of people living in cold and draughty houses was £1bn a year.

It would be funded by the Liberal Democrats ordering the energy regulator Ofgem to "claw back" an estimated £5bn in extra profits they believe energy firms will make by 2028.

Cooper said domestic energy suppliers "operate as total monopolies" and her party believed the regulator should "force energy companies to pay back" what she said were windfall profits and not the product of investments they had made.

The Liberal Democrats also want families on low incomes to be able to insulate their home and install heat pumps for free.

They want to remove green levies on household energy bills and instead have a targeted windfall tax on banks, and to "break the link" between electricity and gas prices and invest in more renewable generation.

The party says these measures together with the new "Energy Guarantee" could save £900 a year from average bills by 2035.

You can watch and read the announcement on the party website, but I have a feeling that a few bullet points and a short interview with Daisy recorded on someone's phone would be of more use to activists.

Still, it's all good stuff and I'm pleased to see a bit of Liberal populism – consumers vs Big Energy – being promoted. 

Lib Dems are reviewing policy and strategy says PoliticsHome

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The Liberal Democrats are undergoing an overhaul of strategy and policy, "with key areas of discussion including the economy, welfare, and, as the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum approaches, a bolder stance on the European Union", reports PoliticsHome.

Unusually for such articles, which generally rely on anonymous senior Lib Dems and party strategists, this one by Matilda Martin and Zoe Crowther has quotations from named MPs.

One is Tom Gordon from Harrogate and Knaresborough:

Lib Dem MP Tom Gordon said that while the results last month were generally positive for his party, losses in the North that weren’t seen during the coalition years rang “alarm bells” for him.

For Gordon, the results were a "warning sign" that the Lib Dems have been operating in "a very cautious way" so far.

"I don't think it was necessarily the wrong approach, but just given the nature and the timeline of where we're at in this parliament and the political events and that fragmentation, I think there is now a rethinking of what we do, what we offer, how we're more punchy, how we're bolder, and what the offer from us is."

And the other is Layla Moran from Oxford West and Abingdon:

"There's definitely a frustration that it feels like we've been talking about the same things – social care and rivers – and that just felt like we weren't really moving forward.

"So us evolving the position and being quite mindful about how we do that now is really important.”

Daisy Cooper also spoke to them on the record.

The authors found a broad consensus too that how Lib Dem policies are then communicated to the public is key, with multiple sources telling them that the party is growing its social media teams in a bid to boost its digital operation.

Layla Moran said told them the party needs to be better at selling Moran admitted that the party needs to be better at selling policy:

"That’s not just Ed – it's all of us. We all need to get literate on social media; we all need to make this sexy again. We all need to understand how to sell this stuff in 30 seconds."

The media rarely do us any favours, but there is a worrying sense that the Lib Dems' concentration on so few policies has left us, despite our 72 MPs, somehow irrelevant to the national political conversation. If we could write our own headlines, what would they be?

And, when both Labour and the Conservatives are both so unpopular with voters, it is a worry that our performance in opinion polls is so static. So such a review is certainly needed. What will it come up with?

Frank reaction today to the Lib Dem election performance

"Am I alone in thinking our response to the local election results is a little too self-congratulatory?" asked David Vigar on Liberal Democrat Voice this morning. We can safely say he is not alone, judging by comment on that blog and further afield.

Next up on Lib Dem Voice was Shaun Ennis:

No one has ever asked me to devise an idea for Ed Davey’s next stunt. But if I was approached from on high, I might suggest having him wade through a river of treacle.

That’s how it feels trying to spread the Liberal Democrat message in the North of England these days.

It’s been an underwhelming set of elections in our part of the country. Despite some notable and very important exceptions such as Stockport, Preston and Sefton, the Liberal Democrats have failed to cut through with what has been a predominantly nationally motivated electorate.

And Johan Prinsloo saw a similar pattern in London:

We saw major success stories in Brent and Ealing, with the local parties there making significant gains on Labour. Our ground game all across London was a marvel to watch, and the establishment of a 100 per cent majority in Richmond, as well as maintaining/improving large majorities in Kingston and Sutton is something to champion going forward. 

These are emblematic of our strong ground game resonating well, when there was a record of results behind them. 

However, it is also important to accept the reality of the situation that we have underperformed in many areas, even just in London. Our major target of Merton has fallen flat with only two councillors gained. 

Also, in Lambeth, Southwark, Islington and my home borough of Croydon, expected gains have somehow evaporated and in some areas, paper candidate Greens in areas like Newham, Barking and Enfield have won without ever campaigning!

While Tara Foster detected a malaise than goes beyond disappointing election results:

In my view, from 2024, we've been electorally and politically stagnant, and the Party has forgotten how to be an effective campaigning machine. Many MPs are well-educated, but their expertise is being wasted. 

For example, we don’t have the tax experts working on treasury matters, and as a result we had Daisy Cooper come out with the politically-weightless idea of a Trumpian "Department of Growth" with a tagline of "Get Britain Growing Again."

James Graham, a fellow survivor of the golden age of Lib Dem blogging, has also gone deeper on his own Quaequam Blog!:

The party continues to do well in places where it has been doing well in recent years, and continues to decline in areas where it took a knock during the coalition years. The areas it does well tend to be rural, formerly Conservative dominated areas and it continues to decline in areas that historically were dominated by Labour. In the latter areas, the Greens have completely eclipsed the party.

Even in places where the party was doing well in recent history, such as Hornsey and Friern Barnet (most of which represented by Lynne Featherstone until 2015) and Manchester Withington (most of which was represented by John Leech), the Greens have replaced the Lib Dems as the main challengers to Labour. Wales, with the exception of a single MS in the form of Jane Dodds and a smattering of councillors, is now a no-go area for the party. ...

As some have pointed out, the extent to which the Lib Dems now represent the richest parts of the UK is quite striking; at the top end, Lib Dem MPs represent even wealthier areas than the Conservatives. No wonder Ed Davey has been quite as hostile to any suggestion of redistributing wealth as he has been over the last couple of years.

And this is my worry too. If we are increasingly drawn to campaigning on the grievances of these comfortably off constituents, then our policies are going to seem at best irrelevant to much of the country.

Let me end with an observation on Keir Starmer and Ed Davey from the Commentary in the current issue of Liberator:

There are worrying similarities in the predicaments of the leaders of what are traditionally the two main centre-left parties as they try to contend with both the Greens and Reform.

Both became leader by replacing an extremely unsuccessful predecessor, both conveyed an “adults are back in charge” air of calm competence and both won bigger than they can have dared hope in 2024.

Since then they have both shown little sign of knowing what to do with that success, both have struggled to manage a larger than expected parliamentary party and both have been unable to clearly articulate in public any narrative about what their party is for and what it wants to do.

While Starmer has made a series of u-turns Davey has made a series of diversion side turnings while not really getting anywhere. British missiles? A new Magna Carta? Splitting the Treasury? Defence bonds? Some of these ideas may have merits but nothing links them and they get the public no nearer to knowing what sort of country they would be living in were the Lib Dems in power.

That issue is no. 434 and you can download it free of charge from the magazine's website. You can also sign up to a mailing list there so you are informed each time a new issue appears.

Daisy Cooper accuses Nigel Farage of wanting to water down women’s rights

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, has called on Nigel Farage to explain why a US anti-abortion advocacy group helped arrange a meeting he had in London with Trump administration officials and diplomats.

The Guardian says the meeting took place in March between Farage and a delegation from Trump’s state department. According to the New York Times, it was overseen by the US embassy and brokered by the Alliance Defending Freedom  group. The meeting discussed abortion rights, free speech and online safety laws.

The Guardian reports goes on to say:

In response to the meeting, the Liberal Democrats accused Farage of working with Trump officials and anti-abortion campaigners who want to water down women’s rights and urged him to explain what was discussed.

Daisy Cooper, the party’s deputy leader, also called on the government to summon the US ambassador to get to the bottom of "what looks like a blatant attempt to interfere in the UK’s domestic laws".

"Nigel Farage needs to come clean … and explain if his party would weaken women’s rights if he came to power," she said.

"The Liberal Democrats will stand up against these attempts to turn Trump’s America into Farage’s Britain and roll back the clock on decades of progress."

A Lib Dem reshuffle is coming after this conference

Photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash 

Senior party figures have told PoliticsHome that the Liberal Democrats will reshuffle their frontbench after their party conference in Bournemouth this weekend.

Among the names tipped for promotion in Harriet Symonds' article are Alex Brewer, Jess Brown-Fuller, Josh Reynolds, Anna Sabine, Mike Martin and Bobby Dean.

Given the calibre of the new Lib Dem MPs elected last year, this sounds like a positive move.

But don't get too excited:

Continuity will prevail in some key areas: deputy leader Daisy Cooper is expected to remain in the Treasury brief, as are Callum Miller in Foreign Affairs – seen as a "safe pair of hands" –and chief whip Wendy Chamberlain.

Daisy Cooper: New Reform UK chair is "yet another Trump lapdog"

"The conveyor belt of Trump sycophants appointed by Nigel Farage rolls on.

"Reform is more interested in advancing Donald Trump’s agenda over here, not standing up for the communities that they are supposed to represent.

"This elevation of yet another Trump lapdog is just further evidence of this."

Daisy Cooper gave Reform UK and their new chair a well-deserved hoofing today. The Guardian says she offered as evidence the tweet above and a photo of his television appearance with a bandaged ear in solidarity with Trump after his narrow escape last year.

As the Guardian observes:

With Labour reluctant to criticise President Trump because they have to negotiate with him, and the Tories reluctant to criticise him because they admire him, the Liberal Democrats are the biggest party in the Commons with ample scope for Trump-bashing, and they rarely miss a chance [to] indulge.

Good for us.

Sunak trolled by a boatload of Liberal Democrats at Henley

Don't think Rishi Sunak was aware that a boat filled with Lib Dems popped up behind him on the campaign trail today...

And I'm pretty sure that's the Lib Dem Deputy Leader, Daisy Cooper on it too... pic.twitter.com/BJhEox9XlQ

— Shehab Khan ITV (@ShehabKhan) June 3, 2024

This is brilliant. We really have grasped that providing the media with striking images will get you reported.

Word has it that Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper was at the helm.

Daisy Cooper quizzed on Lib Dem commitment to free social care

Daisy Cooper is interviewed by Care Home Professional about Lib Dem policy on social care. As she says:

"So many people don’t realise just how broken the system is until they, or a loved one, has to use it. ...

"Only with wider reform - like the Liberal Democrat pledge to increase care workers’ minimum pay, and creating a Royal College of Care Workers to create a real career path in the sector – will we achieve a vision where the most vulnerable in our society are cared for properly and those doing that caring are fairly compensated and appreciated."

Asked about our policy of providing free personal care, she says:

The Liberal Democrats have long been champions of care: of care users, unpaid carers and social care workers. We have announced our commitment to free personal care, not dissimilar to the model in Scotland ... .

Fundamentally, there are two reasons why we have made this commitment.

First, people are living longer and often in ill-health and this has given rise to a huge injustice: some diseases can be treated by the NHS, free at the point of use, but when someone is diagnosed with a degenerative disease, like dementia, they will have to pay for their care.

Second, free personal care will support people to live independently in their own homes, for as long as possible. This will maximise the opportunities for early intervention and prevention, helping people stay out of hospital in the first place and to leave hospital as soon as they no longer need to be there.

And Daisy is asked how will it be paid for:

Liberal Democrats publish a fully costed manifesto at every election, and the next general election will be no exception.

There may be a danger that voters won't believe any big spending pledges in the current climate, but this commitment needs to be given prominence by the Liberal Democrat general election campaign.

Our call for a Royal College of Care Workers will interest professionals, but free social care would have more effect on the daily lives of many voters.

Lib Dems choose their candidate for the new Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency

The Liberal Democrats have chosen local entrepreneur and environmental campaigner Victoria Collins as their prospective parliamentary candidate for the new Hertfordshire seat of Harpenden and Berkhamsted.

The Herts Advertiser reports that she has named her priorities as:

• saving chalk streams and our canal from sewage discharges
• cutting ambulance waiting times
• tackling the cost of living and supporting local businesses.

She told the newspaper

"I am proud to stand for Parliament for my local area and am determined to give this constituency a strong voice in Westminster.

"The towns and villages in this new constituency have been taken for granted for too long by Conservative MPs.

"It is time we had a local champion who will fight to protect our waterways, save our health services and support local businesses.

"We have Liberal Democrat MPs in neighbouring constituencies who are delivering every day for local communities, and I want to follow in their footsteps."

You can see the boundaries of the new seat on Electoral Calculus, and it does indeed border both St Albans (held by Daisy Cooper) and Chesham and Amersham (held by Sarah Green).

Talking of water pollution in this part of the world, when I lived in nearby Boxmoor as a boy there were still commercial water cress beds along the River Bulbourne. Would that be possible today?

Daisy Cooper on the problem of people breaking into prison

Things are even worse than you thought.

Today's Mirror reports:

Cash-strapped jails are facing a new crisis – people breaking in.

In one case, a 13-year-old boy strolled into an open prison to deliver drugs.

Unions say security is so lax at other low-category sites that criminals drop off takeaway food to pals still inside.

The Prison Officers Association said Tory cuts had left some Category D jails with just three guards over night.

The incidents came to light after one prisoner was battered by intruders at HMP Spring Hill, in Aylesbury, Bucks.

The report quotes Daisy Cooper, Liberal Democrat MP for St Albans and the party's justice spokesperson:

"Conservative cuts have caused havoc. Because of overcrowding and under-staffing, the prison system is unable to cope. We need an urgent intervention to end this shambles."

She also calls for community-based sentences "that actually work".

Financial Times talks up Lib Dem chances in St Albans

Sebastian Payne has been to St Albans and found Liberal Democrat prospects good:

Person after person I speak to there registers their disgust at Brexit - a clear majority voted for Remain in 2016 - and the rightward shift of the Tories. Many inhabitants are London exiles, bringing with them liberal metropolitan sensibilities. 

St Albans may once have been a Labour marginal, but the party’s equivocation on Brexit could well have scuppered its aspirations.

He also met our candidate Daisy Cooper:

"I stood to be our candidate in St Albans because it is exactly the sort of seat that should and could be a Lib Dem heartland, people here hold fundamentally open liberal values," she explains over coffee. 

"I want to put a stake in the ground for the party and the country’s future and I absolutely think we can win."

Helping Daisy Cooper win St Albans

Feeling in the mood for delivering this morning, I went down to St Albans to help the Liberal Democrat candidate Daisy Cooper.

If you can go there too, your help will be well used. You will find the Lib Dem election HQ at 9 Hatfield Road, St Albans AL1 3RR.