At a meeting of the Federal Board today, the new board made decisions on three key events, the timeline for our upcoming leadership election, the timeline for upcoming elections to party posts and committees and finally the appointment of a Chair of the Election Review and a timetable for that.

Jump to: Leadership Election | Internal Elections | Election review

Leadership Election Timetable

At today’s meeting the Board agreed, after carefully considering the pros and cons of different options, the timetable for the Liberal Democrat Leadership election.

Nominations will open on the 11th of May and close on the 28th of May. Thursday 28 May will also be the deadline to register as a member eligible to vote in the election - so a key date to use to encourage members to renew and supporters to join the party.

The ballot will then open on the 18th of June and close on the 15th of July, after which the party will announce the next leader.

In the meantime, Ed Davey MP and I as Party President will continue as joint acting leaders of the Liberal Democrats.

I want again thank Jo Swinson for her determined leadership of the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrats are the home for everyone who shares our vision of an outward-looking, caring country that celebrates diversity and benefits from high-quality public services.

With our party membership at record levels, I urge everyone else who shares our values to join us in the coming days and vote in the leadership election.

If you join as a member today, you’ll get a vote in our leadership election. Join now from just £12 a year (that’s £1 a month!):

Join Here

You can also find out more about the leadership election on our dedicated leadership election hub, here: libdems.org.uk/leadership

Internal Elections

We’re looking for the very best of the skills and experience in our membership to rise to the challenge and help run the party.

It's a great way to get involved in the party and I'm very keen to ensure we use this round of posts to help improve our diversity - so please do also think about who else you might want to encourage to put their name forward - especially those with great skills who might not otherwise think of these posts at all.

Posts up for election include Vice-Chairs of Federal Board, Committee Chairs for Federal Finance & Resources Committee, Federal Communications and Elections committee and Federal People Development Committee and committee members for those committees. A Chair and Committee members for the Federal Audit and Scrutiny Committee will also be appointed by the board.

For more information on the posts and how to apply can be found on our internal elections hub at: libdems.org.uk/internal-elections

Election Review

The Board has commissioned a review into both the General election and the European elections.

This review will be run independently of those who ran the elections, with a panel of experts who have a broad range of skills from knowing about grassroots election campaigns through to understanding what the very best decision-making processes in organisations look like.

The Chair is Dorothy Thornhill, who was the elected Mayor of Watford for 16 years, leading a successful turnaround of the council’s administration and quality of services, and was made a Liberal Democrat Peer in 2015.

Watch out for more news soon about how they will be consulting further and there will be many more opportunities for people at all levels to contribute to the review.