Our experience has taught us that the best campaigns are built on personal stories.

They give an emotional and personal connection beyond cold, hard facts.

So to help our campaign to stop Brexit succeed, we have a very specific request.

Can you tell us how Brexit is personally affecting you and your family?

We want to hear from you if: your medication has already been delayed; you’re a business owner, worried about supply chains or staffing or you work in the NHS and you’re worried of the impact on patient care… to name but a few!

So, will you share your story?

How is Brexit affecting you

We may want to use your stories at events, in our literature and online – please do indicate which ones you’d be comfortable with on the page.

Remember, the most impactful stories are those that are personal – those aspects of Brexit that will directly affect you and your family – not opinions and views, so please bear this in mind when making your submission.

Thank you for all you do.

Parliament is in deadlock and we are preparing for a GE to be held soon. The Liberal Democrats will go into any election campaigning to win, fighting for our place in the European Union, where we can work internationally to tackle the Climate Emergency. 

Help us make that happen.

Be ready to vote for the Lib Dems by registering for a postal vote now. 

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn have proved they are not fit for office. Now is the time for Jo Swinson and the Liberal Democrats to take centre stage.

Organising a postal vote is a brilliant way of supporting us, it means your vote can be cast in advance of polling day in your own time. 

It means that if you are campaigning with us on polling day, you know your vote is already in the bag. 

And even if you aren’t, it means that our campaigners have one less door to knock on on polling day. 

After every election I speak to people who planned to vote but couldn’t in the end because something came up on the day – they got ill or were away unexpectedly. But when the country is teetering on the brink of another General Election, I don’t want you to miss out.

The next general election will dictate the course of our country, at a chaotic and busy time, it is important to make sure your vote is counted. 

We are expected to make significant gains across the country as we build on our recent electoral success. Having made strides in the local and European elections, we continue to stand up for an open, inclusive and progressive UK in the upcoming General Election.

You can be part of this movement to bring liberal values back to British politics. 

Simply fill in the form and send it to your local council to be added to the postal vote list. 

Get your postal vote

Thank you!

Probably the most common question I’ve had so far in this campaign is ‘what’s the role of President?’ It’s an important question because it gets to the heart of what we need to do to be more successful in our ambition to build a fair, free and open society, as it says in our constitution.

One part of the role – being the voice of the grassroots in the room with the party leadership – is one all previous Presidents have taken seriously. But what else they do with the role has varied depending on the circumstances.

Right now, with a new party leader, a new deputy leader and a growing Parliamentary Party, it would be a missed opportunity to see the role of President as another media spokesperson for the party. In our MPs, Peers and our excellent cadre of PPCs we have a great team of those already – and we need them to get all the coverage they can.

I’m the son of immigrants, one parent from Germany, the other from Poland. My family history is in miniature the troubled history of Europe, scarred by the horrors of extremism and war – and then my parents making a new home together in our country.

It’s why for me our liberal democracy, despite all its flaws, is so precious. We need to step up to protect against the extremists and populists.

To do that, we need to build a grassroots liberal movement, mobilising the millions who share our values. With such a movement we can continue our successes this year in taking more power – the legal, legitimate way – through campaigning and through elections.

Winning elections at every level gives us more of that precious power to stop Brexit, to protect our planet, to heal the divisions in our society and to meet the needs of our local communities.

That’s why winning is so important – and that’s why I’ve put helping you win at the heart of my pitch to be President.

The key task for the next President is to ensure we have the right strategy and the right organisation to win bigger than ever before – in local government, in the London Assembly, in the Welsh and Scottish governments, in Westminster and in future European elections too.

Unmatched Experience

That’s a task well-suited to my record and my skills:

• Creating with David Howarth the core votes strategy that underpinned our recovery since 2015
• Co-author of the party’s handbook for general election agents
• Successfully championing the registered supporter scheme, now in place and successful
• Supporting the group doing the hard graft on reforming our disciplinary process, getting an improved and independent system in place
• Working with colleagues to introduce gender-balanced selection rules when the London Assembly was created, ensuring we took positive steps to improve our diversity
• Always listening to and informing members, running the best-read Liberal Democrat website outside HQ and the popular Liberal Democrat Newswire emails, all to keep supporters informed about what is going on and how to get involved
• And many other examples, based on my long experience of how the party works

It is, to borrow one of our favourite phrases, a record of action… and a promise of more.

Previous Presidents have varied how they do the job depending on the needs of the time.

Right now, we’ve got a brilliant new leader, deputy leader, a growing Parliamentary Party and soon, fingers crossed, a great new wave of MPs too. The best use of the role of President isn’t to duplicate their media efforts. Rather, it is to support them – and all of us – by getting our strategy and organisation right.

The President definitely needs to be wheeled out in the media to take the flack when things go wrong. I’ve got plenty of experience of surviving trial by media, whether Channel 4 grilling me over a Lib Dem minister up on police charges, the early morning rigours of doing Radio 4’s Today programme, getting interviewed by Jeremy Paxman or surviving the questioning of Andrew Neill. Understanding how to handle crises is also what I do professionally, advising everyone from small charities through to large international companies.

What I can also be is a President who keeps us focused on what will bring long-term success for us in elections at all levels.

The Right Focus

Our federal party HQ, understandably, gets drawn into focusing on the next Westminster general election. But for success we need to think broader – remembering all those other elections and campaigns which matter too – and we need to think longer-term – remembering that there will be a general election after the next one too. That’s where our next President can come in.

If you elect me, this will be my only role in the party.

So I can offer a relentless focus on getting our strategy and organisation right to succeed at all levels, tomorrow and in the long-run.

To find out more or to sign up as a supporter, see https://www.markpack.org.uk/president.