Party time in Brighton: REC at the 2024 Liberal Democrat Party Conference

Did you know the Liberal Democrats won 72 seats in the general election earlier this year? If you'd somehow missed this resurgence at the time, it would be impossible to come away from their party conference this week unaware of the fact. The Lib Dems were in a celebratory mood, having reclaimed their status as the third largest party in parliament and it showed. The atmosphere in Brighton was one of optimism and enthusiasm, and the agenda was a touch light of deep policy dives that suggests they're not quite done celebrating. Given that recesses mean their new MPs have only spent a handful of weeks actually sitting between the election and now, it is perhaps not surprising that they're yet to get fully into work mode. Leader of the party, Ed Davey, even acknowledged the party atmosphere of the conference as he delivered his closing speech with the full cohort of Lib Dem MPs seated on stage behind him.

One area where the Lib Dems did show a commitment to policy was in health. Both Ed Davey, and Health and Social Care spokesperson, Daisy Cooper, highlighted the need for urgent reform of the NHS and wider health and social care system in the UK. Both called for Labour's upcoming Autumn Budget to be a "Health and Social Care budget". There was criticism of Labour's plans to hold off on substantial investment until the NHS had been reformed, with Ed Davey calling for reform and investment to go hand in hand to reinvent our "broken and imbalanced" health and social care system. However, across two Davey speeches, Cooper's speech and a number of panel discussions on how to fix the health and social care system, conversations around how to fix staffing procurement across the sector remained scarce.

Speaking of things that were scarce, the wider debate around employment, work and the labour market was conspicuously absent from the Liberal Democrat's agenda. Given the way this has dominated Labour's political programme through their first 3 months in government, it was a surprise to see only a single roundtable discussing the Liberal Democrat's own position on employment reform. The REC, of course, attended this event and were able to discuss our own thoughts on employment reform and the importance of agency work (as per our Voice of the Worker campaign). Chatham House rules prevent names being named, but one senior figure from the party acknowledged that "zero-hours contracts are actually rather popular with the people who are on them" and the nuance this therefore requires when it comes to regulating them.

Elsewhere, the Lib Dems came out strongly in favour of fixing the UK's relationship with Europe, with the eventual goal of returning to the single market, and in promoting a return to a more decent, compassionate form of politics. As the third largest party in parliament (72 MPs if you need reminding), Ed Davey made it clear the role he envisages for his party in providing meaningful scrutiny and opposition to Labour in a way that he believes the Tories are not fit to do. Decrying Labour's current stance as doom and gloom, Davey set out his intention to hold the government's feet to the fire where necessary to ensure faster and bolder action is taken on the big issues (read NHS).

Whether the Lib Dem revival has been overstated remains to be seen, but as we move forward into the last part of the year it will be interesting to see how their role in parliament plays out. There's a lot on the political horizon and once the time for partying has passed it will be crucial for the Lib Dems to get to work, both in terms of activity and developing some policies in this area.