This was originally delivered as a speech for ‘Are the Lib Dems a progressive party’ fringe event on Saturday 14th March 2026.

Let me address the title of this meeting head-on. Liberalism is a progressive creed, but I have my doubts about how much we are currently a Liberal party.

Politics is a balance of conviction and electoral tactics. Our current electoral tactics appear to be summed up as, “Say little, offend no-one, and harvest the protest votes” – in other words we’re subverting our convictions. That worked very well in 2024, but I and many others are far from convinced it will work in 2029 – because the landscape will be different.

I agree with Ed that seeing off Reform is our main goal, but if you look at who Reform’s supporters are, yes there are a few die-hard red-necks, but what’s taken Reform up to 30% are mainstream people who’ve lost hope that mainstream politics can provide solutions to mainstream problems. And if we want to win them back, or even just neutralise them, we have to have something attractive to offer instead, and be authentic in offering it.

Fortunately, Liberalism offers a fantastic source of values and polices that we can mine to create an attractive package:

In an era of data creep and AI encroachment, a political creed that puts the welfare of the individual ahead of the state and big wealth is exactly what people are crying out for.
In an era of local tensions and mistrust, a creed that focuses on community as a source of mutual support – but not a straitjacket of identity – is absolutely on point.
In an era where people see those in power feathering their own nests while they themselves struggle to make ends meet, a creed that brings power and decision-making back to local level offers hope for fairness and better outcomes.
And in an era of widening inequalities, we need a political creed that believes in equality of human value, equality of votes, equality of power-sharing, and a belief that all people have intrinsic worth.

It’s clear that Liberalism, the underlying creed of our party, is progressive. But what are we doing to make the most of Liberalism? Here I worry.

To give you an example, we currently have a working group on how to create ‘a thriving economy’, but I see no evidence that it’s asking fundamental questions designed to make people think we have the basis for a better future. Where is the economic model that can support liberal democracy, rather than provide incentives to undermine it as today’s economics does? Where is the modern-day economics of those great mid-20th-century Liberals, Keynes and Beveridge?

Take AI. If we’re the party that puts the individual ahead of the state and big wealth, why aren’t we leading the calls for the proper regulation of AI? AI has its uses, but aspects of it need regulating, and we should be in the forefront of the campaign for that. We are, after all, an internationalist party, and the regulation of AI can probably only be done internationally, which again emphasises how this should be our topic.

We know the two issues that most affect young people are climate change and housing, so where’s our identity on those? We need to tackle the issue of land and property-ownership, so young adults look at us and see we are looking to create the framework that will allow young voterrs and those that come next to be able to afford somewhere to live, whether renting or buying. On the environment, the Liberal Party was Britain’s first Green Party back in the 1920s and again in the 70s – now Britain’s official Green Party isn’t talking about the environment any more, we need to reclaim our natural environmental territory and be a beacon of hope that we’re not squandering the next generation’s natural inheritance.

And please be clear – we don’t need to tack right to defend our sitting MPs. Professor Tim Bale of Queen Mary University, one of Britain’s leading political academics, told me a few weeks ago that most of the 57 seats we won in 2024 came from tactical shifting among voters already in the progressive centre-left, not from disillusioned Tories. So we mustn’t hide our Liberal light under a bushel but re-establish our progressive credentials, while at the same time making clear how we’re different from Labour and the Greens.

Above all we need a national message that inspires hope that there is a better way, even if it means some of our voters at the higher end of the earnings scale paying a bit more in tax, but that’s part of the deal in helping us work for a society more at peace with itself. Having a progressive national identity doesn’t stop us playing to our strengths on local issues, in fact it helps local campaigns because what works in one place can work in another. We can make the local national, as Roz is doing with her Stronger South Cotswolds initiative.

Make no mistake – Liberalism is a progressive creed. Our mission now is to make the Liberal Democrats a truly Liberal and progressive party that inspires people to believe that politics and democracy can deliver the solutions our country so desperately craves.

Thank you for listening.