The County Durham model: lessons for Lib Dems everywhere

What other Lib Dems can learn from County Durham

Ahead of the local elections in May, Liberal Democrats in County Durham were facing all-up elections on new council boundaries, requiring more candidates than the party had ever stood before. 

They rose admirably to the challenge, standing a record number of candidates, making a net gain in the face of a Reform wave, becoming the official opposition on the council  - and continuing to make progress since, including with a by-election win off Reform.

A very impressive record of progress, based in part on flipping around one of our usual approaches. Often we talk about how growing our membership is important to help smaller local parties grow and succeed. But in County Durham they did it the other way round. They identified the most pressing need: for more local election candidates. Then they searched widely for people willing to take on the role, and only then, for those who were not yet members of the party got them to sign up. In other words, they prioritised specific recruitment of people to fit the most needed local roles, and membership growth followed from that. 

People who had grown up in areas without any Lib Dem local election candidates were strongly motivated by their personal experiences to want to change that. Membership growth was the later consequence, rather than the initial focus. 

Alongside that, they followed our best practice in how to get more members volunteering - breaking down big tasks into small steps people could take on, having a regular schedule of when help would be needed and advertising internally for ways people can help other than, or in addition to, leafleting and canvassing. 

That is an important lesson for us to learn more widely, as there has been an odd duality of the story about grassroots strength in the last few years. On many measures, there has been clear and sustained progress - more councillors, fewer councils with no Lib Dems on them, more canvassing taking place outside target seats, fewer council wards going without a Lib Dem candidate and more extensive delivery networks. Yet alongside that our membership total is back to where it was before the (anti-)Brexit boom in membership.

Part of the reason for these contrasting pictures is that the immediate incentive across the party is to find people to help share the workload with. Hence, for example, asking a keen supporter on the doorstep to become a leaflet deliverer rather than a member, as helping get those leaflets out is the immediate priority. 

What County Durham shows us, perhaps, is that rather than focusing on membership itself but instead focusing on recruiting people to needed roles may be the way forward - both to bigger local campaign organisations and higher party membership.

Good news for Lib Dem leaflet designers

A new version of Affinity - the software package widely used in the party to design leaflets - is out. Even better, it is now free. There are some advanced paid-for features, but you can do everything needed to produce cracking leaflets with the free version.

You can get the new version from www.affinity.studio/get-affinity. 

Files saved in the new version will not open in older versions, but you can open files from older versions in the new version. Therefore the party’s official templates will continue to be produced in the old version until May 2026.

Federal Conference news

Following the retirement of Mike Ross as Federal Conference Chief Steward, Jodie Frapple has been appointed as the new Chief Steward by Federal Conference Committee (FCC). 

She will be a familiar face to many conference attendees, having been Co-Chief Steward for the past few years, and prior to that Deputy Chief Steward since 2013. 

Huge congratulations and good luck Jodie!

Registration is now open for what will be her first Federal Spring Conference, in York on 13-15 March 2026. You can register with the special early bird discounted rate at www.libdems.org.uk/conference. 

The party budget

The Board has agreed the party budget for 2026. As with the last Parliament, we are using a surplus from the general election to invest in the party’s success and growth in the first half of the Parliament, running deficits initially as we run down the surplus. 

This approach worked very well in 2019-2024 for two reasons. First, the early years of a Westminster Parliamentary cycle still see important elections at other levels. Second, the early investment in our staff team means there is time for campaign staff, local campaign volunteers and (prospective) Parliamentary candidates to build up into effective teams that can deliver the quality and volume of campaigning required to win at a general election.

Other Board news

Following a Federal Appeals Panel ruling over how diversity quotas should be applied in the party’s internal elections, the Federal Returning Officer, David Crowther, decided to step down. Many thanks to him for all his work in establishing the role which was a new post when he first took it on.

The Board appointed one of his deputies, and an STV expert, Crispin Allard, to fill the vacancy.

Updated constitution

An updated version of the Federal Constitution and associated documents is on the party website, including all the changes made at our Bournemouth Conference.

And finally…

Know someone who is interested in the Lib Dems but not yet ready to join or volunteer? They can sign up for emails from the party, including a monthly report on what is happening in Parliament: https://www.libdems.org.uk/email-updates 

Do you have questions on any of this report, or other Lib Dem matters? Then please drop me a line on president@libdems.org.uk.