What positive steps have you personally taken to ensure that the Parliamentary Party is more reflective of wider society? What other things should the party be doing in general to encourage diversity?
Throughout my professional life, as a lawyer and an MP, I have worked to combat inequality. Sometimes that has been through individual casework, sometimes by supporting individual candidates and campaigners in elections. As one of the longer serving MPs I have come to realise the importance of working supportively with younger, newer colleagues. Having the support of our new colleagues this year, such as Jo, Julia, Jenny and Sarah, is refreshing and I welcome the challenge which they bring to me and the parliamentary party as whole.
For me, being supportive of people from minority communities, such as lesbians and gay men or black and minority communities, is a fundamental and integral part of liberal democracy. I’m pleased to have had the opportunity to support important legislative changes such as civil partnerships. As Leader, I would work with colleagues to build a bigger and stronger parliamentary party which has diversity at its heart.
We are a party of diversity. We cannot remain static. We need to keep pace with social and political change. The best way to do this is through our membership. Working at the grassroots, we must ensure that liberal-minded people from all backgrounds feel the Liberal Democrats are a comfortable home. Our membership is our most valuable resource. We must involve them, at all levels, from local fundraising committees, to the party’s Federal Executive and Parliamentary Parties. Monitoring is vital to identify where there are problems to address. We have some way to go but I want to ensure that we have policies and practices which will meet the challenges of our multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious society.
