Liberal Action

​Liberal Democrat MP Dr Danny Chambers has issued a stark warning that climate change poses a direct and immediate threat to the United Kingdom's national security through its severe impact on agriculture and food production. ​Speaking in Parliament following a tumultuous period of extreme weather, Dr Chambers highlighted the compounding pressures facing British food producers. " We know that food security is part of national security and it's been another tough year for agriculture, a record wet winter and now a record hot summer," Dr Danny Chambers  ​The Liberal Democrat MP pointed to the shifting geographic range of agricultural diseases as a tangible consequence of rising global temperatures. Highlighting the arrival of bluetongue virus, he noted, " We also have blue tongue disease going through livestock, which when I was at vet school was a disease of Northern Africa and Southern Europe and it has spread through Europe to the UK and ...

​Liberal Democrat MPs, Sarah Dyke and Tessa Munte, have called on the government to implement immediate policy interventions to protect the UK's domestic aluminium processing sector. Highlighting a growing vulnerability in national supply chains, Sarah Dyke MP warned that too much valuable scrap material is currently being exported overseas at the expense of local industry. ​"Aluminium is a critical mineral, vital to our defence, construction and green energy industries," stated Sarah Dyke, emphasising its formal recognition as a strategic resource by both the UK government and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). "Too much UK scrap aluminium is being exported overseas while domestic reprocessing declines." ​Industry data underscores the scale of the challenge. Between 2021 and 2024, the combined UK and European reprocessing rate for British scrap packaging dropped sharply from 83% to 68%. Projections from the Aluminium Packagi...

​A mounting crisis is overwhelming waste centres across England and Wales, where a growing backlog of broken fridges and freezers threatens to spill over into widespread fly-tipping. The Local Government Association (LGA) has warned that extreme heat waves this year have driven up equipment failures, while a sharp decline in domestic processing capacity has left local authorities unable to cope. ​Dozens of councils have been forced to suspend white goods collections entirely or introduce strict temporary booking restrictions. The crisis has been triggered by the closure of three of the UK's ten full-scale processing plants over the past 12 months due to a fire, bankruptcy, and a change of use. Compounding the issue, remaining domestic facilities must shut down when temperatures exceed 30°C, forcing the UK to increasingly export appliances to Europe for safe handling. ​Liberal Democrat MP for Didcot and Wantage, Olly Glover, has slammed the growing backlog as...

​Thousands of tonnes of cosmetically imperfect fruit and vegetables are being discarded on British farms before ever leaving the gate, exacerbated by this summer's extreme weather. While perfectly safe and nutritious, these crops are routinely rejected by rigid supermarket specifications, threatening both the livelihoods of agricultural producers and the stability of the nation's supply chains. ​With the UK currently sitting at approximately 60 percent food security, heavy reliance on imports leaves the nation vulnerable to external shocks. Sarah Dyke MP, the Liberal Democrats’ Rural Affairs Spokesperson, has warned that rejecting wholesome produce over trivial flaws is driving the country toward a dangerous tipping point. ​"There's one surplus food redistributor that I spoke to recently who received 6,000 rejected cauliflower heads in a single week just because they were slightly yellow," Sarah Dyke MP highlighted, poin...

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey joined families and campaigners at the Parent Strike in London, using the platform to launch a scathing critique of current family policy in the United Kingdom and to demand sweeping overhauls to parental leave.   ​Addressing the crowds gathered to protest, Davey emphasised the urgent need for systemic reform to support households during the earliest stages of child-rearing. ​"I was proud to stand with families at the Parent Strike today," "Our country is failing young families, particularly in those first precious few months of a baby’s life. Both Mums and Dads need proper choice and flexibility – and we will continue to fight for it!" Ed Davey MP  Focusing on the financial hurdles new fathers face, the Liberal Democrat leader argued that British paternity leave is among the least supportive in Europe, locking many parents out of taking vital time off work. ​" Dads get a really bad deal in the UK, we th...

Ahead of Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s visit to Wales, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Wales and MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, David Chadwick, sharply criticised the tour, arguing that communities require concrete policy changes rather than dialogue.   ​While the Prime Minister arrived to engage with workers, apprentices, and families facing ongoing cost-of-living pressures, the Welsh Liberal Democrats pointed to Labour’s long-standing regional track record. Highlighting the political history preceding the administration change in May, David Chadwick MP stated:   ​“Andy Burnham says he is coming to Wales to listen to people struggling with the cost of living, but Labour ran Wales for 26 years until May.”    ​David Chadwick MP emphasized that despite decades of continuous leadership, fundamental socio-economic challenges remained unaddressed for Welsh citizens. He added: ​“In that time, wages remained the lowest of the UK nations, child p...