Defending and Strengthening British Democracy Working Group
After years of Conservative chaos and scandal, and months of Labour failure and inaction, public trust in politics is lower than ever – and we have seen how populists and authoritarians in the UK and around the world seek to exploit that lack of trust and new media to undermine our fundamental liberal democratic principles.
A new working group will develop the Liberal Democrat defence of our liberal democracy: how to protect it from foreign interference, restore public trust, and put meaningful power in people’s hands.
This working group is producing a consultation paper for Spring Conference 2026 and the final paper will be ready for Autumn Conference 2026.
The remit of this group is to review the party’s policies on democracy, and make updated proposals which communicate our values of liberty, equality, democracy, community, internationalism and environmentalism in a way which helps secure the election of as many Liberal Democrats as possible, at local, regional and national level, in order to promote our vision of society.
The group's full remit is set out here.
- Sarah Lewis (chair)
- Sarah Olney MP
- Manuela Perteghalla MP
- Baron Wallace of Saltaire
- Sarah Anderson
- Hannah Camileri
- Chi Hei Dei
- Joseph Gaunt
- Stephen Gosling
- Andrew Haldane
- Matthew Hanney
- Dr David Howarth
- Samuel Jackson
- Daniel Jones
- Georgina Maynard
- Larry Ngan
- Dr Timothy Oliver
- Hania Orszulik
- Jenny Shorten
- Professor Rux Trandafoiu