Our political opportunity

Sarah Green's brilliant victory in Chesham and Amersham shows the huge political opportunity for us - as long as we can continue to apply the lessons from our 2019 election post-mortem.

As part of this, a trio of motions have been submitted for our autumn federal conference. One is from the Federal Board (FB) on the party's strategy. The other two are from the Federal Policy Committee (FPC), on the party's values and our policy platform. Hopefully all three can be debated in sequence, so we agree values, strategy and platform in a joined-up way.

The Liberal Democrats have condemned the government's new "Borders Bill".

Lib Dem leader on the London Assembly, Caroline Pigeon, commented: "This Anti-Refugee Bill is another truly nasty piece of legislation from the Tories, ripping up the UK's proud tradition of providing sanctuary to refugees."

Lord Brian Paddick, our Spokesperson on Home Affairs in House of Lords, responded, "Totally agree - if you're a desperate refugee fleeing war and persecution there is currently no legal route to enter the U.K."

On the floor of the House of Commons this afternoon, South Lakes MP Tim Farron secured a meeting with the Minister for Schools, Nick Gibb, to discuss how the Government can support the outdoor education sector in Cumbria.

Speaking during an Education Statement in Parliament, Tim said: "A couple of weeks ago I was at the Bendrigg Trust outdoor education centre in my constituency, and it was a massive joy to see residential activities slowly starting again, with young people getting the benefits of outdoor education. It is a reminder of two things.

As you may have noticed, this Conservative Government doesn't like to be challenged.

Just look at how angry and red-faced Boris Johnson gets at Prime Minister's Questions every week. Just listen to how often Ministers rail against lawyers and the courts, because judges sometimes rule against them. Just remember how they refused to do interviews with journalists who might dare to ask difficult questions.

Why support them for this long and then not see them through to the end?

Furlough is beginning to taper away and the business rates holiday is also coming to an end on July 1st. However, restrictions are set to remain in place until 19th July.

This Government seems incapable of hearing the many voices telling them loudly and clearly how desperately small businesses need support to help them cope with the extra period of restrictions, and beyond.