We now have a criminal Prime Minister.

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have both been fined for breaking Covid laws. Laws they wrote, and you followed.

While we made countless sacrifices to protect each other, they were partying in Downing Street. They think they’re above the law.

Neither of them are fit to hold office. If Boris Johnson won’t resign, Conservative MPs must sack the Prime Minister.

“Surely even Conservative MPs now can recognise that the prime minister and chancellor must go”

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey says “this is a very serious moment for our country”https://t.co/zcFiHJprSK pic.twitter.com/r2iA5PLXBf

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) April 12, 2022

There’s no blustering his way out of this one; Boris Johnson has broken the law and lied to Parliament and the country, and he must now go.

It is a kick in the teeth for everyone who has sacrificed so much during the pandemic, from those who weren’t able to visit loved ones in hospital, to nurses left wearing binbags as PPE.

The country cannot have criminals and liars leading our Government, especially at a time of national and international crisis. 

MPs must have the chance to hold the PM and Chancellor to account — which is why we’re calling for Parliament to be recalled immediately for a vote of no confidence. And the Conservative Party must do their patriotic duty and kick these criminals out of Government, once and for all.

Life’s been tough for lots of people over the past few years. And it’s still tough. But with their trademark decency and strength, the British people are rising to the challenge. Raising families. Caring for others. And playing by the rules.

Now more than ever, it’s time for a fair deal.

Yet with the rising cost of living, this Conservative Government is letting you down badly and taking you for granted.

Liberal Democrats work hard for our communities, we hear your concerns, and never take you for granted.

Soaring energy bills are overwhelming millions of families and pensioners. But the Conservatives either don’t care or don’t get it… and do nothing to help.

Instead they’re raising unfair taxes again and again. They’ve plunged our NHS into crisis, making cancer patients wait and leaving loved ones desperate for that urgent ambulance.

And Conservative MPs have voted time after time to let water companies keep on pumping their filthy sewage straight into our rivers. While water companies rake in billions of pounds in profits.

All that must change.

That’s why people are turning to the Liberal Democrats more and more. Because they know we work hard for our communities, we hear your concerns, and never take you for granted.

It’s why so many people supported us in last year’s by-elections in Chesham and Amersham, and North Shropshire.  It’s why so many tell us they are supporting us in the elections in May.

Voting Liberal Democrat sends a message that enough is enough!

Every vote for the Liberal Democrats counts. Every vote for the Liberal Democrats sends a message to the Conservatives:

They can’t keep hitting families with soaring energy bills.

They can’t keep failing our NHS.

They can’t keep pumping sewage into our rivers.

They can’t keep taking the British people for granted.

Voting Liberal Democrat sends a message that enough is enough!

A vote for the Liberal Democrats next month is also a vote to elect a strong local champion, someone who will fight for a fair deal for you and your community. 

A fair deal, with an emergency tax cut to save struggling families and pensioners £600. With a new Ambulance Fund so that if you have to call 999 you know they will be there. And £15 billion to help our children catch up on the learning they’ve lost to Covid, including funds for parents to spend on whatever your children need most. A fair deal where we tax water companies to clean up their mess, rather than letting them get away with dumping sewage into our rivers.

Everyone has a right to enjoy the beauty of nature, with wonderful clean rivers and open green spaces.

That is the fair deal the Liberal Democrats are fighting for. That is the fair deal the British people deserve.

Our focus this year has been squarely on understanding the party’s overall political direction, our target voters, and the role our policies can play in helping us to persuade people and win votes. This was the main focus of our in-person awayday at LDHQ at the end of February, and has underlain all our other discussions, with the aim of informing both our current policy development work, and its direction for the future.

We already have quite a large programme of policy development to try and achieve this, under way. Working groups developing policies for a fairer society (including UBI), and a more caring society (with a particular focus on social care) are under way, as are ones looking at planning & homes, early years and the natural environment. These all held consultation sessions at spring conference (see their consultation papers here, and please do respond! Useful responses can be anything from a sentence or two on your top priorities, to a full set of answers to every question in the papers).

Tim Farron and I are currently conducting a review into the Party’s candidate selection processes.

The review has been commissioned by the The Federal Communications and Elections Committee (FCEC), following conversations with the State Parties. Candidate approval and selection is a State Party function within our governance.

Working with and supporting the State Parties in their own work, the review will investigate, assess and report on:

• Westminster Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) selections that have taken place during this Parliament.
• The current strengths of, and areas of improvement for, the Party’s candidate selection processes in each State.
• How to implement suggested improvements.

Following an initial consultation session with members at Spring Conference, and a first phase of key stakeholder interviews, we are inviting all members to have their say.

Click here to tell us what you think.

Practical suggestions, made in the context of our available resources, are particularly welcome. We also encourage you, ahead of responding, to reflect on a few of the questions members such as you have highlighted so far.

• What is working well?
• What is not working well or could work better?
• What do our processes mean for diversity and inclusion?
• Do we test for the right things?
• Do we do our due diligence properly?
• How do we balance the needs and rights of Local Parties, Federal Campaigns and Candidates?

The deadline for submissions is the end of April 28th.

We aim to report our initial findings to FCEC in May, with a view to bringing proposals for reform to Autumn Conference.

Over the past month, as more than 3.5 million innocent Ukrainians have been forced to flee their country to escape Putin’s war, people across the UK have responded with enormous compassion and generosity.

More than 150,000 have offered to open their homes to Ukrainian refugees.

The Anti-Refugee Bill is an awful piece of legislation that flies in the face of the incredible spirit of the British people.

Yet the response from Conservative Ministers has been slow, bureaucratic and inadequate, granting just 15,800 visas after weeks of war.

And at the same time, Priti Patel is still pushing her Anti-Refugee Bill through Parliament. An awful piece of legislation that flies in the face of the incredible spirit of the British people.

Among other things, this Bill would:

• Criminalise refugees simply for coming to the UK to seek asylum.

• “Offshore” asylum seekers by sending them to another country while their claims are processed.

• Create a second class of refugees with fewer rights and only temporary protection.

So under these new laws, a refugee from Ukraine – or anywhere else – who comes to the UK to seek asylum would face up to four years in prison, be sent abroad for processing, and then – if their claim is approved – be relegated to second-class refugee status.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of Brian Paddick and other Liberal Democrat peers, the House of Lords passed amendments to remove those laws from the Bill. They also added new clauses to require the Government to resettle at least 10,000 refugees a year, and to give asylum seekers the right to work if they have to wait more than six months for their claims to be decided.

At a time when protecting refugees has never been so important, Conservative MPs have voted for more tragic deaths in the Channel.

Yesterday, Conservative MPs voted to overturn all of those amendments. We voted to keep them. Now the Bill will return to the House of Lords next week, where we will continue to oppose it.

By voting to stop refugees from taking safe and legal routes to the UK, and forcing them to take dangerous ones instead, Conservative MPs have voted for more tragic deaths in the Channel.

Priti Patel’s Anti-Refugee Bill is a traffickers’ charter. It beggars belief that she is still trying to push it through at a time when protecting refugees has never been so important. She should listen to the British people and ditch it now.