LDDA - The Liberal Democrat Disability Association

We now have a criminal Prime Minister.

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have both been fined for breaking Covid laws. Laws they wrote, and you followed.

While we made countless sacrifices to protect each other, they were partying in Downing Street. They think they're above the law.

Neither of them are fit to hold office. If Boris Johnson won't resign, Conservative MPs must sack the Prime Minister.

Life's been tough for lots of people over the past few years. And it's still tough. But with their trademark decency and strength, the British people are rising to the challenge. Raising families. Caring for others. And playing by the rules.

Now more than ever, it's time for a fair deal.

Yet with the rising cost of living, this Conservative Government is letting you down badly and taking you for granted.

Yesterday was Trans Day of Visibility. It's a day for celebrating trans and non-binary people in all walks of life and making clear our commitment to delivering justice for all Trans people. As Mermaids said in one of their posts on the day: ally is a verb. We need to step up.

Sadly, the day was brought to a close by something that likely won't come as a surprise to members of Plus: a Government betrayal over LGBT+ rights. After more than a thousand days of dither and delay on the conversion therapy ban, it emerged that the Government had planned to drop the ban later this year. Our equalities Parliamentary Spokesperson, Wera Hobhouse, condemned this as "not just another U-turn from the Tories, but giving the green light to a form of torture".

Our focus this year has been squarely on understanding the party's overall political direction, our target voters, and the role our policies can play in helping us to persuade people and win votes. This was the main focus of our in-person awayday at LDHQ at the end of February, and has underlain all our other discussions, with the aim of informing both our current policy development work, and its direction for the future.

The Spring statement was a Sunak Swindle - hiking up people's taxes today while promising to cut them in future.

Rishi Sunak is following Boris Johnson's lead by not being up front and honest with the country.

Buried in the small print is a tax bombshell that will see the average family paying £1,600 more in taxes over the coming years.

Tim Farron and I are currently conducting a review into the Party's candidate selection processes.

The review has been commissioned by the The Federal Communications and Elections Committee (FCEC), following conversations with the State Parties. Candidate approval and selection is a State Party function within our governance.

Over the past month, as more than 3.5 million innocent Ukrainians have been forced to flee their country to escape Putin's war, people across the UK have responded with enormous compassion and generosity.

More than 150,000 have offered to open their homes to Ukrainian refugees.

The Anti-Refugee Bill is an awful piece of legislation that flies in the face of the incredible spirit of the British people.

A robust and well-functioning justice system is a foundation stone of society.

But in England and Wales we are facing a soaring backlog of court cases.

The backlog of outstanding criminal cases in the Crown Court stood at 59,928 at the end of September. 13,202 cases in the backlog are more than a year old.

Our Ambulance services are at breaking point. Record long ambulance waits are leaving vulnerable patients stuck in queues outside hospitals for hours without the treatment they need. People are being left scared, panicked and with worsening symptoms, and in extreme cases dying when they might have been saved.