Your May Briefing from the Liberal Democrats in Parliament

We are proud to confirm that Wendy Chamberlain’s (MP for North East Fife) Carer’s Leave Bill has completed its final stages in the Houses of Parliament, receiving Royal Assent, and becoming an Act of Parliament this week.

This legislation will provide family carers who are also in work a new statutory right to up to a week’s extra leave to help them balance their caring responsibilities with their work. It is a great first step towards better rights for carers, but there is still a lot more to be done and we will continue to campaign on this.

The Guardian had a great write-up on our new legislation, celebrating the impact this will have on millions of carers across the country. Please do give it a read.

The opening of new coal mines in England could be banned after Peers in the House of Lords defeated the Government on a Liberal Democrat amendment to the Energy Bill.

The amendment, led by Lib Dem Peer Robin Teverson, would put a stop to new facilities like the one in Cumbria which was approved by Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove MP in December last year.

A ban on new coal mines has wide cross-party support, and we hope the Government will listen to our concerns as the Energy Bill now goes through the House of Commons.

This comes after our members voted to support Wera Hobhouse’s (MP for Bath) motion at Spring Conference - our plan to solve the energy crisis for the long term.

Liberal Democrats understand that we need to protect our planet and wins like these will help reduce emissions and set Britain on a path to a sustainable future.

Ed Davey (MP for Kingston and Surbiton, and Party leader) has put forward a Bill as part of our new Burglary Response Guarantee policy.

We are calling for a new minimum standard which would require the police to attend every domestic property that has been broken into - something that is currently severely lacking.

In 2022, nearly 75% of burglaries went unsolved. That’s nearly 90,000 burglaries where the police didn’t even identify a suspect, let alone charge anyone. Not to mention that an officer didn’t even attend the scene in more than 45,000 cases.

Our legislation would put a stop to that.

We have been very clear in our opposition to the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill and earlier this month, Lord Paddick made an attempt to shut the legislation down completely using a fatal motion in the House of Lords.

This rarely used procedure forced a vote on whether to allow the legislation to continue. Unfortunately, the vote was defeated and this dangerous Bill will be allowed to progress, but we will continue to fight against it. We all want to put an end to the dangerous crossings on small boats across the Channel, but the Government’s plans are not the answer.

Our policy, put forward by Alistair Carmichael (MP for Orkney and Shetland) and voted for by Members at Spring Conference, offers a compassionate, practical and safe plan.

Speaking at a conference for Conservatives in London, Jacob Rees-Mogg MP suggested that the Voter ID regulations that were introduced at this year’s local elections were brought in to manipulate the results in the Conservative’s favour.

Helen Morgan (MP for North Shropshire) called for an official investigation into these claims by the former cabinet minister, to expose the real reason Conservative Ministers pushed ahead with this reform and refused our calls to put a stop to them.

Before the Local Elections, Helen wrote to Conservative Party Chairman, Greg Hands MP, following news that Conservative campaign leaflets had been printed saying that voters did not need ID to vote, asking for an explanation and again calling for an investigation.

Jamie Stone (MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) and Alistair Carmichael (MP for Orkney and Shetland) secured a meeting with the Defence Minister after Jamie raised concerns in the House of Commons about the threat of Russian ships which have been cruising in the North Sea.

With heightened concerns following the Nord Stream explosion last year, it is important that any potential threat to our energy infrastructure is taken seriously.