Lib Dem Federal Elections Voting Guide 2025
Voting has now opened in the Lib Dem internal federal elections. Before you cast your vote, this guide contains the Radical Association’s recommendations on who to vote for.
Every single candidate we are endorsing is someone who we believe can be counted on to be a radical voice in the room and who will push for the party to be well-run, accountable to members, and to carve out a distinctive, bold and powerful liberal voice in national politics.
However, these elections have also been thrown into chaos by a secretive, last-minute decision to re-interpret the party’s gender balance rules to exclude and misgender trans and non-binary people. We encourage you to read and sign the open letter by LGBT+ Liberal Democrats on the issue.
This decision means it’s more crucial than ever that we get good people elected to every committee where possible.
We are also aware that there is a concerted effort by a small number of transphobic activists to try to get people who share their views elected onto committees.
For this reason we highly recommend NOT using all your preferences, and only preferencing those candidates you actively support.
Please vote for the following candidates:
Party President
The Party President is the chair of the Federal Board and is ultimately responsible for overseeing the party CEO who runs HQ and manages all other party staff.
We are not making a recommendation in this race and encourage you to read the manifestos and make up your own mind. However, we do note that Prue Bray has been the most outspoken and radical in opposing the last-minute changes to election rules, and we suggest this should be counted as a point in her favour.
Party Vice-President for Ethnic Minority Communities
The VP sits on the Federal Board and is responsible for working with ethnic minority communities.
We are making no recommendations in this race, but would be concerned about the implications for grassroots representation if the election resulted in the party president and vice-president both being MPs at the same time, and suggest you take this into account when deciding which candidate to vote for in each race.
Federal Board
The board oversees the day to day running of the party, but has only three directly elected member representatives. We recommend the following candidates:
Federal Council
The council is the scrutiny body for all decisions made by the Federal Board. Having a strong contingent of voices to push for a bolder, radical direction is vital. We recommend voting for all of the following candidates:
Federal Policy Committee
This committee is responsible for developing party policy papers and for writing the manifesto, in conjunction with the leadership. However, in practice it often allows itself to be steered by MPs and by market researchers employed by party HQ, which results in bland, inoffensive, and immemorable policies making it into the manifesto. Having voices who’ll resist this trend is very important:
Federal Conference Committee
This committee is responsible for organising and running the party conference, including chairing debates, choosing which speakers to call, and choosing which motions and amendments are allowed onto the agenda in the first place. It is very important that we have members of the committee who will fight to keep conference as the heart of party decision-making, rather than as just a platform for MPs to make speeches to an audience:
Please do vote for all of these excellent candidates, and please give each of them at least one of your preferences, even if not your first preference.
Who we are
The Radical Association is a group of grassroots campaigners united by a shared belief that the future for the Liberal Democrats lies in promoting a distinctive, radical and unapologetically liberal vision for Britain's future.
Only by offering real, bold solutions for Britain's problems can the rising threat of right-wing populism and fascism can be defeated. We work to promote these values both within and outside of the Liberal Democrats.
Find out more: radicalassocation.org/about