If ever there was a time for us to act in support of Hong Kongers, it is now.
Many Hong Kongers have suffered grave persecution at the hands of the Chinese Regime.
With repeated reports of police brutality, the UK has a moral and legal duty to stand with Hong Kongers and ensure no one is left behind to suffer under the Chinese Communist Party.
Despite the massive effort people have made to fight coronavirus it's clear that the road to recovery is going to be rockier than we first feared.
With millions of workers worried about their livelihoods, the British people deserve a Government that listens to their concerns and does everything in its power to protect them. Sadly, this isn't the case.
Following the issues with our Mayor of London selection and in response to a request from the London Lib Dems, I asked Alison Suttie - a Liberal Democrat peer and the new chair of the Joint Candidate Subcommittee (JCSC) - to do an investigation to learn the lessons, not only for London but for our selections more generally.
I have a bill going through the House of Lords right now, the Domestic Premises (Energy Performance) Bill.
It requires the Government to ensure (with certain reasonable exceptions) that all fuel poor households are properly insulated and heated to achieve Energy Performance Certificate band C by 2030, and all other households by 2035.
The Conservatives have continually promised to back British farmers throughout the Brexit process, but their failure last week to uphold our high food standards reveals just how hollow those promises were.
Our high agricultural standards must be protected in international trade deals and after the transition period.
Conservative MPs have rejected all 10 cross-party amendments to the Government's Immigration Bill passed by the House of Lords earlier this month, including three from the Liberal Democrats.
The 28-day time limit on immigration detention (Amendment 6) - introduced by Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Hamwee in the House of Lords - was rejected by 328 votes to 264.
Welcome to the Weekly Whip. Your one-stop shop for Lib Dem Parliamentary updates, covering the week that was and the week to come.
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Weekly Whip w/c 12th October
Monday 12th October
Monday was a key day for British Farming, but the House started off with a Prime Ministerial Statement from Boris Johnson regarding the new tier system for Covid-restrictions. Ed Davey and Munira Wilson led the charge for the Lib Dems, with Ed stressing that time is of the essence; the British people have made painful sacrifices and the government cannot squander the opportunity to get solid testing systems in place. Munira raised another glitch in the trace system which attributes positive cases for students to their home addresses, rather than university addresses, skewing critical data.
Today, Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael led cross-party opposition to the Government's Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill, calling a vote against the legislation in the House of Commons.
People across the country have endured terrible hardships over the past six months. They've lost loved ones, lost livelihoods and been cut off from friends and family.
We have made huge sacrifices and played by the Government's rules - we deserve to have confidence that these rules will work.
Instead, our efforts are being squandered by the incompetence of Boris Johnson. His Test and Trace system is not fit for purpose, and scientific advice is being ignored.
I am pleased to announce today that in Wales we have secured free school meal provision for all school holidays until at least Easter 2021.
The coronavirus pandemic has presented countless challenges this year, but with the Welsh Government now guaranteeing £11 million for these provisions, we can help support those who look to school for more than just education.
People across this country have endured terrible hardships over the past six months: losing loved ones, losing livelihoods and isolating from friends and family.
People are angry to see their hard work and sacrifices utterly wasted by the incompetence of Boris Johnson.
That's why people are so angry to see their hard work and sacrifices utterly wasted by the incompetence of Boris Johnson.
Tackling COVID19 outbreaks should be the responsibility of Public Health England. However, the agency, underfunded since it was set up seven years ago, was unprepared to deal with a pandemic.
World Beating Promise
Instead of rapidly expanding Public Health England, the Government opted for a brand new centralised scheme outsourced to private companies. Spending £10 billion on drive through testing and giving £108 million to Serco for contact tracing, the Prime Minister promised a "world beating" system.
In order to "get more homes built", the Government wants to completely change the planning system.
Currently there is a two stage planning process. Once the Government has set the number of homes to be built, the District Council develops a Local Plan after extensive local consultation. Once the plan is agreed, individual planning applications are then considered by local Councillors, with input from the public, before final approval is given. The current system enables issues such as flood mitigation to be ironed out at the detailed planning application stage.
The Government claims that this is too much "red tape", preventing house building. However 90% of planning applications are approved. In fact there are more than a million homes with planning permission that have yet to be built. That represents three years supply of new homes.
Now the Government wants to take the second detailed stage away from local Councils with a single stage zonal system. Where land is zoned for "Growth", developers will receive automatic planning approval, removing the chance for local objection.
"Simplifying" planning is not the real problem, it is the private housebuilders sitting on land banks and only building when they can make greater profits.
Liberal Democrats
