Lib Dems ‘need to regain young’s trust’

Moran would seek to ‘redefine’ party

POLITICS: Liberal Democrat leadership hopeful Layla Moran has said recapturing the trust of young people will be key for her party to recover from their “heartbreaking performance in last year’s general election.

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT leadership hopeful Layla Moran has said recapturing the trust of young people will be key for her party to recover from their “heartbreaking” General Election performance.

Ms Moran, who on Thursday was confirmed as going head-tohead with Lib Dem acting leader Sir Ed Davey for the party’s top job, said there was work to do on convincing northern voters to back the party, and the challenge was to redefine what liberalism meant to the average voter.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, the Oxford West and Abingdon MP said: “I believe there is a different way of doing things in this country, and it’s been too long since the Lib Dems have had that positive message to give people.”

Ms Moran said while knocking on doors during and after the election in December, in which the Lib Dems returned just 11 MPs and then leader Jo Swinson lost her seat, “what people told me was that they didn’t know what we were for, and also that they felt let down and that they’d lost trust not just in whichever of the other parties represented them, but also in politics in general”.

She added: “And that just broke my heart.”

Ms Moran’s competitor Sir Ed has been reported as being the favourite to bag the top job.

But she said: “I think my leadership would be emblematic of the renewal of the party from the last 10 years (which) have been really, really difficult, at a time when the country is in desperate need of hope, and positivity. That’s what we are going to be as a party under me.”

Ms Moran said she took a view that politics was better outside of Westminster, having voted for Parliament to move outside of London and backing a Yorkshire Parliament.

She said: “Even though my seat is an Oxford, I recognise that the Government has become a government mainly of London.

“They are claiming to now wanting to be investing in the Northern Powerhouse, but I’m yet to see any actual evidence of that.

“I do think that when people level at the Lib Dems ‘you’ve become London-centric’, I kind of agree with them, and that’s what I want to change. We cannot keep making policy that only really works in a small part of the country.”

She added: “People are sick of the way that things are done right now, and we can offer a positive vision for that future.”