Liberal Party | |
|---|---|
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| Leader | Steve Radford[1][2] |
| Chairman | Charles Shaw[2] |
| Founded | 1989; 36 years ago (1989) |
| Split from | Liberal Party |
| Headquarters | Liverpool |
| Newspaper | Liberal News[3] |
| Ideology | Liberalism (British) Classical liberalism Euroscepticism |
| Political position | Centre |
| Colours | Orange |
| Slogan | Campaigning for a Liberal Society |
| Local government[4] | 7 / 19,481 |
| Website | |
www | |
TheLiberal Party is aminorpolitical party in the United Kingdom which espousesliberalism. It was founded in 1989 by a minority of members of the originalLiberal Party (founded in 1859) who opposed the latter's merger with theSocial Democratic Party (SDP) to form theLiberal Democrats (though legally, it is the post-merger Liberal Democrats which is the formal successor to the historic Liberal Party, with the post-1989 Liberal Party being a brand new party). The Liberal Party currently holds sevenlocal council seats. The party promotes a hybrid of bothclassical andsocial liberal tendencies.
The originalLiberal Party entered intoan alliance with theSocial Democratic Party in 1981[5] and merged with it in 1988 to form what became theLiberal Democrats.[6] The Liberal Party, founded in 1859, was descended from theWhigs,Radicals,Irish Independent Party andPeelites, while the SDP was a party created in 1981 by former Labour members, MPs and cabinet ministers, but which also gained defections from Conservatives.[7]
A small minority of the Liberal Party, notably including the formerMember of Parliament (MP)Michael Meadowcroft (the last elected president of the Liberal Party), resolved to continue with the Liberal Party. They continued using the old party name and symbols, including the party anthem,The Land. Meadowcroft announced this reformation after the defeat of the traditional liberalAlan Beith to become party leader of the Liberal Democrats, although Beith himself stayed with the latter.[8]
The continuing Liberal Party included several councillors and council groups from the pre-1988 party which had never joined the merged party and continued as Liberals (hence the disputed foundation date), but no MPs. Since then, the number of Liberal district councillors has gradually declined. However, as a result of a number of community-based politicians, defections and recruitment the party has an increased number of town and parish councillors. The party has had its greatest success in elections toLiverpool City Council. Its leadership largely comes from the Liverpool area and the party is primarily based in North Yorkshire.
Meadowcroft stepped down from the party presidency in 2002, and was replaced by Councillor Steve Radford. In 2007, Meadowcroft left the party and joined the Liberal Democrats. Radford stood down in 2009, and was replaced as president of the party by former councillor Rob Wheway, who served a year as leader. Radford was re-elected party president in 2010, and has been elected for further terms by members in ballot at assemblies and by electronic voting.
Party members take part inLiberal International (LI) activities through the Liberal International British Group.
The 1989 reformed party initially continued the Liberal Party's support for European integration but, unlike the Liberal Democrats, they came to oppose theSingle European currency and theMaastricht Treaty, the latter of which was seen as disempowering theEuropean Parliament. In the 1997 general election, they advocated turning the European Union into a "Commonwealth of Europe", which would include all European countries and focus on peace and the environment, rather than on economic issues.[9] In Meadowcroft's book for this election, he advocated joining theSchengen agreement,[10] an idea which did not appear in the party's manifesto. The Party in this period also opposedreferendums with the line "It is dangerous to pretend that issues can be settled by a simple question with a yes or no answer", and instead preferredcitizens' juries.[9] After Radford replaced Meadowcroft as party leader, the Liberal Party became increasingly Eurosceptic.
The party put up a full slate of candidates in theNorth West England region for the2004 European Parliament election, coming seventh with 4.6% of the vote (0.6% of the total British popular vote).
In the2009 European Parliament election, the Liberal Party's Steve Radford participated in theNo2EU electoral alliance.[11]
In the2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum campaign, the party let candidates express their own views, but both the National Executive and many party members supported Leave. As the party had a long-standing opposition to the use of referendums, they released a statement that ceding sovereignty was an exception to this principle, and that the Lisbon and Maastricht Treaties should have been subjected to referendums on transferring power to the European Union.
Following the referendum, the party argued that the country shouldleave the EU in its manifestos for the 2017 and 2019 general elections.
The Liberal Party refers to its ideology as a "hybrid" ofclassical liberalism andsocial liberalism,[12] and claims that theLiberal Democrats have shown contempt for "liberal principles", the "British people" and the "democratic process".[13]
| Election | Leader | Votes | Seats | Position[a] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | ± | |||
| 1992 | Michael Meadowcroft | 64,744 | 0.2% | 0 / 651 | New | 13th |
| 1997 | 45,166 | 0.1% | 0 / 659 |  0 |  18th | |
| 2001 | 13,685 | 0.1% | 0 / 659 | 0 | 20th | |
| 2005 | 19,068 | 0.1% | 0 / 646 | 0 | 22nd | |
| 2010 | Rob Wheway | 6,781 | <0.1% | 0 / 650 | 0 | 29th |
| 2015 | Steve Radford | 4,480 | <0.1% | 0 / 650 | 0 |  25th |
| 2017 | 3,672 | <0.1% | 0 / 650 | 0 | 24th | |
| 2019 | 10,876 | <0.1% | 0 / 650 | 0 | 18th | |
| 2024 | 6,375 | <0.1% | 0 / 650 | 0 | 30th | |
| Election | Leaders | Votes | Seats | Position[b] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | ± | |||
| 1989 | Michael Meadowcroft | Did not contest election | ||||
| 1994 | 100,500 | 0.6% | 0 / 87 | New | 12th | |
| 1999 | 93,051 | 0.9% | 0 / 87 | 0 | 14th | |
| 2004 | 96,325 | 0.6% | 0 / 78 | 0 | 13th | |
| 2009 | Did not contest election | |||||
| 2014 | ||||||
| 2019 | Steve Radford | |||||
In the2011 local council elections, eight Liberal councillors held their seats, three lost their seats and five new Liberal councillors were elected: a net gain of two.[14] In the two years leading to the May 2013 local elections, the number of Liberal councillors rose from 16 to 21.[15]
Cllr Steve Radford received 4,442 (4.5%) of the votes in the first round of the Mayor of Liverpool 2012 election.[16]In the2012 United Kingdom local elections there was a net loss of six seats, in the2013 elections the party won three seats, a gain of one.[17]
Although the Liberal Party has retained councillors in Ryedale and Liverpool, it has not had a significant impact. However, Liberal member John Clark served as chair of Ryedale District Council's policy and resources committee, making himde facto leader of the council, from March 2021 until his death that August.[18]
In 2014, the Liberal Party held 21council seats at county and district level and 15 seats at community level.[15] The party has no representation in theUK Parliament orScottish Parliament, nor did it ever haveMembers of the European Parliament (MEPs). At the2001 UK general election the party's best local result was coming second behindLabour inLiverpool West Derby, pushing the Liberal Democrats into third place. However, it was unable to repeat this at the2005 general election; it finished third behind the Liberal Democrats in the constituency, still beating theConservative Party, and repeated this position at the2010 general election. In the2015 general election the Liberal Party came fourth narrowly holding its deposit, ahead of the Liberal Democrats (who came last) and theGreen Party, but behindUKIP and the Conservative Party.
At the2017 general election, the party contested four seats and received 3,672 votes.[citation needed]
In the2019 general election, the party contested nineteen seats and received 10,562 votes.
At the2021 local election, the party appears not to have won any new seats.[19] A seat was retained on Liverpool City Council.[20] The party lost its last remaining unitary authority seat when Chris Ash ofDogsthorpe Ward ofPeterborough City Council retired and no Liberal candidate stood.[21] In the 2021Mayor of Liverpool election the party's candidate Steve Radford received 7,135 votes (7%).[16]
In the2024 general election, the party contested 12 seats and received 6,375 votes.
The party stood Danny Clarke as its candidate in the2025 Runcorn and Helsby by-election, receiving 454 votes.
The Liberal Party has never had any members in theHouses of Parliament, theScottish Parliament, theWelsh Parliament, theEuropean Parliament or theNorthern Ireland andLondon Assemblies.
| Council | Councillors |
|---|---|
| East Devon | 1 / 60 |
| Liverpool | 3 / 85 |
| North Yorkshire | 1 / 90 |
| Wyre Forest | 2 / 33 |
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| Year | Unitary | County | District | Total | ± |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 5 | 22 | 27 | 3 | |
| 2004 | 5 | 23 | 28 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | 23 | 25 | 3 | |
| 2006 | 2 | 24 | 26 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 2 | ||||
| 2008 | 2 | ||||
| 2009 | 2 | ||||
| 2010 | 2 | ||||
| 2011 | 2 | ||||
| 2012 | 2 | ||||
| 2013 | 3 | 18 | 21 | ||
| 2014 | 3 | 3 | 16 | 19 | 2 |
| 2015 | 3 | 16 | 3 | ||
| 2016 | 3 | 15 | 1 | ||
| 2017 | 3 | 10 | 5 | ||
| 2018 | 2 | 7 | 3 | ||
| 2019 | 1 | 9 | 9 | ||
| 2020[23] | 1 | 8 | 9 | ||
| 2021 | 9 | 9 | |||
| 2022 | 1 | 11 | 12 | 3 | |
| 2023 | 4 | 2 |
Totals include any in-year by-elections and defections, held/gain/loss are the changes since the start of the last municipal year. Figure from the BBC election results before 2003 lists Liberal Party seats amongst "Others" or "Independents".
In May 2021, the party's only candidate at the2021 Scottish Parliament election, Derek Jackson in theGlasgow Southside constituency, was escorted from the count after arriving wearing rainbow arm-bands, yellowStar of David-style stars, and harassingHumza Yousaf, a candidate in the nearbyPollok constituency.[24] Upon ejection from the count, the candidate and his supporters were photographed appearing to giveNazi salutes.[25] The Liberal Party immediately suspended Jackson and issued a statement distancing itself from his comments and actions and apologising for any offence he may have caused;[26] Jackson was expelled from the party on 9 May.[27]
Cllr Clark was the chairman of Ryedale Council's Policy and Resources Committee, which made him the de facto leader of the authority after councillors chose not to elect a councillor to the official role of leader.