Liberal Democrats continue to stand behind President Zelensky and the whole of Ukraine. This Conference, we have been honoured to have Kira Rudik – Ukrainian MP and leader of our sister party, Holos – with us. Her immense courage and leadership has been an inspiration to us all. We must support her, and the Ukrainian people.

So just as when Russia first invaded Ukraine, Britain must continue to support the Ukrainian people as they face down aggression and fight back.

We welcome the decision of the UK Government to supply Ukraine with Challenger 2 tanks, and train F16 fighter pilots, which Liberal Democrats had called for. We call on the Government to continue to help arm Ukraine, including by providing longer-range precision weapons.

It is vital that we continue to encourage our allies to do all they can to support Ukraine. To this end, the UK should establish formal cooperation mechanisms on foreign and security issues with the EU and NATO.

We must also seek to isolate Russia like the rogue state it is. After over a year of Liberal Democrat pressure, the Government has finally acted to proscribe the Wagner Group, making anyone engaging with them, anywhere in the world, in violation of UK law. The Government must now work to make the case with our allies that they should follow suit. 

The UK Government must not rest on its laurels while Putin’s cronies continue to evade accountability.  It’s time for an economic retaliation package – starting by closing down the lucrative loopholes that funnel Putin’s illegal wealth to his dwindling front line.

The UK Government is still yet to publish the review of golden visas – which was commissioned over four years ago. Putin’s cronies have treated this country as their playground for too long – it’s beyond time to kick them out. 

The Liberal Democrats are steadfast in our commitment to supporting Ukraine, isolating Russia, and upholding the values of justice and accountability. We stand with President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people.

Ukraine can win. Ukraine must win.

England’s housing market is profoundly unfair, with a secure home becoming increasingly impossible for millions of people, especially the young, less well off and ethnic minorities.

Successive governments have pursued policies to benefit homeowners, without considering the impact on those without property.

A fair deal is needed for housing, which provides for the needs of everyone, not just homeowners, and meets the aspirations of millions of younger people and the less well off to have the security that older generations and the wealthy enjoy.

Liberal Democrats believe in taking action to tackle the housing crisis. We’re calling for significantly more homes to be built every year, including significantly more social homes. The UK simply hasn’t built enough social housing for years, while what we do have has been sold off without replacement.

Liberal Democrats already have a history of sustainably delivering homes, working in partnership with the local community. In Portsmouth, Cumbria and Kingston, Liberal Democrat councils are building thousands of new council and housing association homes. York City Council, when under Liberal Democrat leadership, set in place a programme to deliver hundreds of new zero carbon council houses.

Local authorities need greater powers to tackle the excesses of big developers, including ending land banking, as well as being able to build more homes themselves. 

Renters need a fair deal including finally ending no-fault evictions, extending the length of tenancies and ensuring rent can only increase by a fair amount each year. 

And if we believe we need to tackle the climate crisis, we need a long-term programme to insulate our homes, to end fuel poverty, cut energy bills and slash emissions. New homes must also be built to zero-carbon standards, ensuring they are good for the pocket as well as the climate. 

Today, Liberal Democrat members have passed new policy to tackle the housing crisis. Liberal Democrats are calling for:

• A national target for building social homes, aiming for 150,000 a year by the end of the next parliament. With new powers for local authorities to build their own social and affordable housing.
• A ten year emergency programme to insulate Britain’s homes as well as new standards to ensure new homes are warm, cheap to heat and produce minimal emissions. 
• Ensuring developers build appropriate infrastructure needed for new housing developments.
• Abolishing leaseholds for residential properties and effectively ending ground rents by cutting them to a nominal fee. 
• Introducing a fair deal for renters, including longer default tenancies, rent smoothing over the course of a tenancy and banning no fault evictions.
• New powers for local authorities to control and manage second homes and holiday lets.
• Expansion of Neighbourhood Planning, more democratic engagement in Local Plans, reforming the Land Compensation Act to ensure land can be bought at a fair price and extending the Liberal Democrat proposed Commercial Landowner Levy to land with planning permission, but not yet built on. 
• Building 10 new garden cities to help tackle the housing crisis.

The Liberal Democrats will create a fair deal for housing. Taking on the big developers, delivering new homes, improving renters’ rights and protecting our environment – together we can tackle the housing crisis.

These are just a few of the shocking headlines from the past weeks – we should not be facing these issues in a modern democracy.

Being able to vote is a fundamental democratic right. Yet thanks to the Conservatives, it’s now at risk – with millions potentially facing being disenfranchised at the next election. These measures disproportionately impact the young, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was a Cabinet Minister when the voter ID law was introduced, has described Voter ID as an attempt to ‘gerrymander’ elections in the Conservatives’ favour.

At the 2022 elections, there were 13 cases of alleged personation investigated – and no further action was taken in any of those cases. In the 2023 local elections, at least 14,000 voters were turned away from polling stations because of the new rules. Voter ID is like using a sledge hammer to crack a nut.

The Conservatives’ Voter ID scheme will cost £120m over the next decade – a massive waste of taxpayers’ money.

Voter ID must be scrapped. Liberal Democrats are leading the fight against this deeply unfair scheme. 

The Liberal Democrats in both the House of Commons and the Lords consistently led opposition to the introduction of the Voter ID law.

Today Liberal Democrat members backed my Elections (Voter Identification Requirements) Bill, which would scrap the Voter ID scheme and stop this attack on our democracy.

I grew up on a farm and I worked in the farming industry. My parents and my brother still live and work on our farm. I’ve seen first-hand the impossible pressures farmers are under. 

My brother was forced to give up his dairy herd in recent years as it simply wasn’t sustainable in the current climate. And he’s not alone. Instead of supporting farmers, these Conservatives are driving them out of business and endangering their livelihoods. 

The Conservatives have failed to guarantee UK food standards in trade deals, undermining our farmers and risking their very livelihoods. 

They are cutting farmers’ existing payments before the new Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMs) is even ready.

They have slashed business energy support and failed to class farmers as energy intensive businesses, depriving them of vital support.

Meanwhile, farmers cannot access workers due to the government’s botched Brexit deal. In the first half of 2022, £60m worth of fruit and veg went to waste just because of workforce shortages. 

The Conservatives’ failure to back British farming is driving up food prices and it’s ordinary people who are suffering. 

British farmers are the best in the world, Liberal Democrats want to see them continuing to produce high quality food for our tables while protecting and enhancing our natural environment. That’s why today we passed comprehensive new policy to support British farming, protect our environment and secure our food supply:

• Ending food poverty: extending free school meals to all children in primary education and to all secondary school pupils whose families receive Universal Credit. 
   
• Sustainability: Immediately raise the Environmental Land Management scheme budget by £1 billion, supercharging the transition to environmentally sustainable farming.
   
• Supporting farmers: Funding and support for the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service to assist farmers with the transition.
   
• Workforce: Introducing a proper visa and seasonal worker system which allows our farmers and fishers to access the workforce they need.
   
• Protecting the environment: Rewarding farmers to reduce the use of costly imported and environmentally harmful artificial fertilisers and pesticides and tackling antimicrobial resistance, improving food security and tackling food costs.
   
• Cooperation: Signing a veterinary and phytosanitary agreement with the EU as soon as possible, alongside mutual recognition and alignment on standards and quality to allow farmers trade with Europe easily. 
   
• Trade deals: Prevent the undercutting of UK farmers and fishers in international trade deals by mandating proper democratic scrutiny and accountability in trade deals and ensuring all imports meet UK environmental, climate and animal welfare standards. Renegotiating the Australia and New Zealand Agreements to ensure this.
   
• Innovation: Introducing a Research and Innovation Fund to support new and emerging technologies in the sector.
   
• Food safety: Giving everyone confidence in the security and safety of the food they buy by providing local authorities with greater powers and resources to inspect and monitor food production, ensure goods are properly checked where necessary, introducing robust and clear food labelling.

Farmers are at the heart of rural communities, they feed our nation, they are custodians of our landscapes.

The Liberal Democrats are committed to supporting British farming to continue safeguarding our environment and producing the high quality food we all want for generations to come.

People across the UK are facing a cost of living catastrophe.

Soaring food, gas and electricity prices. Sky-high mortgage bills and rents.

And all this Conservative government does is make things worse.

Raising income tax for everyone by freezing the personal allowance & 40p threshold. Dragging more low-earners into paying tax.

While inflation soars, the country is paying more tax than at any time since the Second World War. 

We cannot let the Conservatives make the people who can least afford it pay for their mistakes and economic chaos.

So it would be wrong for us to raise income tax even further on families struggling to make ends meet – that’s why we won’t continue our policy to add a penny to income tax. Instead we’ve set out other ways to fund our plans for a fair deal.

We will make sure that companies that can afford to pay more in tax, do. We will reverse the Conservatives’ multi-billion-pound tax cuts for the big banks. And HMRC will be empowered to collect more of the £36bn in taxes that the Conservatives are failing to collect.

Liberal Democrats are campaigning for a fair deal, and we’ll pay for it fairly too.

A fair deal that gives everyone the opportunity to get on in life, wherever they start.

A fair deal that puts power in your hands, so you can do your bit – for your children, your community, your business and your environment.

A fair deal that holds the powerful to account, to make sure they do their bit too. Where everyone plays by the same rules.

That is the fair deal the Liberal Democrats are fighting for.