Liberal Democrats ready to work across party lines for ‘progressive change’

THE Liberal Democrats will today send out a clear signal that they are willing to support a Labour government at Westminster.

Treasury spokeswoman Christine Jardine will use her speech at the online Libdem conference to say the party must “work with everyone who yearns for the progressive change the country needs”.

She will say the fairer society liberals have worked towards for more than a hundred years

“isn’t going to happen on its own”.

She will say: “If we are going to drive it now, the way Liberals did 100 years ago, if we are to have a new era, a new vision, a new fairer society, we need to grow, and work with everyone out there who yearns for the progressive change this country needs.

“If we do that, then maybe this generation of Liberals can finish the job that previous ones started.”

Polls suggest Sir Keir Starmer would struggle to lead Labour to a majority in the General Election due by the end of 2024, but a minority administration is possible.

With the SNP likely to demand a second independence referendum as the price of its support, Labour would be far more inclined to reach out to the Libdems instead.

Ms Jardine, the MP for Edinburgh West, is also due to accuse the Conservatives of failing to tackle the alarming cost of living crisis.

“Writing off billions that have been fraudulently taken from the taxpayer, while hitting those same taxpayers with a hike in National Insurance and stealth taxes.

“Failing to tackle the cost-of-living crisis… Where is the targeted support for those struggling? the increase in winter allowances?

The uplift in universal credit?

“We need a government that is on top of these issues, in touch with what people need, paying attention to the people it serves.”

Delegates are also expected to debate catch-up education for pupils after the pandemic, trade with the EU, farming, sewage discharges, the NHS, and the Ethiopian civil war.

Party leader Sir Ed Davey is scheduled to have a Q&A session with activists this afternoon.

The Libdems yesterday urged the UK Government to impose a price cap on the heating oil vital to many rural households.

Caithness MP Jamie Stone said domestic oil prices had more than doubled in a fortnight, from 67 pence per litre to 148 pence.

Although consumers with gas or electricity heating have some protection from price increases under Ofgem’s energy price cap, there is no equivalent for the 1.5million homes using oil.

Mr Stone said: “From Shetland to Somerset, off-grid households across the UK are seeing astronomical rises in the price of heating oil, with absolutely no financial protections in place. Millions of predominantly rural households have been forgotten by this Tory government.”

The letter was co-signed by three other Libdem MPS, including Orkney & Shetland’s Alistair Carmichael.