We are back!
The recent general election gave the Liberal Democrats 72 MPs, more than any other time since 1923. Not since the days of Asquith and Lloyd George has Liberalism’s voice in parliament been so strong. However, our unprecedented seat total is to a great extent built on anti-Tory tactical voting which will be of less relevance during the next general election. The surge in Reform and Green Party voting shows that we will still face serious challenges to our status as the repository of the protest vote.
We will no doubt benefit from the surge in short money, media exposure, donations, and the new members this election will bring us, but this will not be enough to mount a good defence of our 72 seats, let alone expand into new ones. Building a core vote has often been a key part of our long-term plan, but messaging is only half the solution to generating it.
Institutions are what is needed to create and retain it.
Most major political parties have remained as such through institutions helping to create and marshal their core vote, whilst also providing it with funds and an activist pipeline. Trade unions generally provide this service to Social Democratic and Socialist parties around the world, whilst church membership did the same for many Christian Democratic parties like Germany’s CDU.
Our institutional approach should aim towards building lasting support from three groups of voters who are inclined to vote for us on the basis of shared values and policy: trade unionists, small business owners, and working-aged people on benefits.
Trade Unions
Trade unions are well known to be effective generators of core votes, activists, and funds for many political parties, however, for many in the party trade unionism is under the purview of the Labour Party and should be left to them. After all, the days of Lib-Lab MPs are long gone and titans like Joseph Arch, Johns Burns and Thomas Burt might as well be myth. This need not be the case. As recently as 1992 19% of trade union members voted for the Liberal Democrats and whilst some of the UK’s biggest trade unions are affiliated with the Labour Party, most are not, and Labour-union relations have become frayed. We should be seeking out growing ties with the smaller trade unions whose demographics mirror our existing voters, chiefly middle-class professionals.
Our first target is the conference regular the NEU, with which we share many education policies, followed by the other main teacher’s union NASUWT. The other could be Prospect. Its membership demographics are similar to the NEUs, and their ethos of helping members developing skills and opportunities for career progression will gel well with liberal values. This would require entryism by the party’s working-age members, being more welcoming of trade unions at party conferences, and consulting friendly unions on policy development. Another possibility is to help create friendly trade unions at the initiative of our members. Less than a quarter of British workers are trade unionists so there is a lot of opportunity for growth. As a long-term objective, we should aim to create a counterweight to the Labour-dominated TUC mirroring Belgium’s General Confederation of Liberal Trade Unions.
Small Businesses
Brexit has shaken the Conservative’s ties with the business community, with prominent Tories vulgarly dismissing business concerns or by comparing them to nazi appeasers. This is something which Labour has taken advantage of by seeking a closer relationship the City of London. Rather than following Labour’s path exactly, we should look to the far larger community of micro, small, and medium enterprises.
As proponents of decentralisation and opponents of the centralisation of power the Liberal Democrats should be seeking the support of the self-employed and SMEs. As a party filled with people wanting to live their lives on their own terms with should have a natural kinship with the self-employed.
With this in mind we should aim to improve our existing relationship with the Federation of Small Business (FSB) and increase funding for the Liberal Democrats Business Network to expand its outreach efforts. Given how over 28% of small business owners were inclined to vote for us, according to one poll in May 2024, we have a robust foundation to work on.
People on Benefits
As the party of the People’s Budget and the Beveridge Report we should be well-positioned gain the support of people who use the benefit system. Unlike Labour or the Conservatives, Liberal Democrat members and voters aren’t receptive to the idea that the tyranny of the work coach or that a weak social safety is necessary to help people get back into work. Indeed, in 2017 we were able to outflank a Corbyn-lead Labour Party by offering a manifesto that was not only more redistributive, but one committed to reversing twice as many benefit cuts. Whilst these policies have in the past mainly helped us attained the vote of the socially consciousness middle classes, they can be adapted to gain the support of the many millions directly affected.
The first step is messaging.
This will require framing these reforms as a means of empowering the most vulnerable and giving them freedom from want and freedom from the bureaucrat. The messaging would highlight we can restore agency and allow them to take power. Our existing policies opposing sanctions, ending the two-child benefit cap, and a guaranteed basic income are already a great starting point, but they could be further developed by giving people accessing the benefit system a greater say in how it is run. Not via a toothless consultation, but through elected councils with broad powers over local job centres, akin to the work councils for workplaces the party called for in the 1970s. These councils would run the operations of job centres alongside management, with power over the job centres being redistributed from Whitehall.
The second and much harder step is building the needed institutions.
We should start building ties with benefits advice groups like Citizen’s Advice, though this will be an exposure-related exercise rather that with have limited efficacy in developing a core vote. For that we will need to develop ties to organisations that are of, by, and for benefit recipients which are few and far between. We should rectify this by creating voluntary associations based around helping benefit recipients navigate the system. PIP users would be a good place to start when it comes to building this support. As its a universal benefit, PIP recipients come from a broad range of backgrounds, including many of the demographics that already vote Liberal Democrat.
Conclusion
British politics in flux following the crushing defeat of the Tories and Labour’s rightward shift. With Reform and Greens ready to take advantage of the chaos we should develop an effective long-term strategy. There is plenty of room we can fill by being a forward-looking radical non-socialist alternative to Labour, but that appeal needs institutional foundations. We cannot go back to relying on the protest vote.