Congleton Liberal Democrats

We have a by-election in Brecon and Radnorshire!

The current MP, a hard Tory Brexiter, has been overwhelmingly recalled by his constituents.

And if we take this seat off the Tories and they may lose their working majority in the Commons.

Brecon and Radnorshire is a seat that we held until 2015, and we hold the Welsh Assembly Member seat.

Please be advised that this article contains language that some may find offensive

As a child of the Windrush generation, Windrush Day is hugely important to me. I'm so glad that we, as a society, are marking it.

The term 'the Windrush Generation' stems from the arrival, on June 22, 1948, of the ship The Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks, just east of London, bringing with it the first immigrants from the Caribbean.

Do you get excited by a big by-election? Do you want the inside track on how we are performing?

We are setting up a new email list to give you just that - a first-hand account from the Campaign Managers and candidates of how we are performing in big Parliamentary by-elections and most importantly how you can help.

If you're not down in Brecon and Radnorshire campaigning on the doorstep with the fantastic Jane Dodds and team,
there's still a very important way you can help us win.

Every week (often twice a week), we welcome volunteers at Lib Dem HQ in London who come and help us phone canvass.

You don't need any experience and we love to see new faces join us!

Three years on from the 2016 referendum and we are still in the EU.

This in itself is a huge achievement. It is also a fact that I find myself reminding journalists and political figures of fairly frequently. In three years we have come a long way. On the devastating morning after the referendum, I was numb. It felt like it was a foregone conclusion that Brexit would happen, and our country would inevitably have to undergo the associated irreparable damage. Very quickly it became clear that wasn't the case.

Brexit is the most serious threat to our country in my lifetime.

Yet the Conservative Party leadership contest shows they still haven't got it - and are even willing to make things worse. Enthusiastic talk of a No Deal Brexit? Of sending MPs home - proroguing Parliament - so MPs can't stop a No Deal? By people who want to be our country's Prime Minister? Whoever wins that leadership contest has to be stopped.

My number one priority as leader would be stopping Brexit. It should be the number one goal of everyone in our party.

It's why I've worked so hard as the leading Liberal Democrat in the People's Vote campaign to bring together a group of like-minded MPs who want to give the British people the final say.

Over the past three years, I have been proud to help lead the calls for a People's Vote in the belief that the challenge of Brexit required not only the strong leadership provided by the Liberal Democrats but also for us to work together with people of all parties and none.

I never imagined that I would be able to say that Michael Heseltine and Alastair Campbell voted the same way as me, but our message to stop Brexit brought together voters from all corners of our politics.

I'm running to be Leader of the Liberal Democrats - but your choice could be about far more than simply who leads our Party.

The tectonic plates of British Politics are shifting, and its the most volatile I have seen it in my lifetime. With the Liberal Democrats on 20% in the polls, two main Parties crumbling from the inside, and a re-alignment of political allegiances across the country, we have a golden opportunity to cement our place as the leading force of Remain.

This month is Pride month. This year, June is also 50 years on from the pivotal Stonewall riots. We've come a long way, yet still couples in Northern Ireland are still denied the right to marry the person that they love.

Internationally, huge progress has been made when it comes to the rights and freedoms of LGBT+ people. Just this summer, Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage while Botswana decriminalised homosexuality in a landmark ruling. But we still have so far to go. In the UK many LGBT+ people still face a grim reality in which discrimination, both socially and in the eyes of the law, blights their everyday reality. The shocking image of a young lesbian couple covered in blood having been subjected to violence on a bus in London this month was a stark reminder that bigotry and prejudice persist.