To mark 100 days to the World Cup in Russia the we’ve laid out a ‘starting 11’ of major concerns Russia needs to give the red card before kick off. 

The issues include:

1. Stop annexing foreign territory
2. Stop interfering with foreign elections
3. Stop hacking foreign governments & businesses
4. Stop institutionalised doping in sports
5. Stop human rights abuses
6. Stop decriminalising domestic abuse
7. Stop supporting Assad in Syria
8. Stop the stamping out of democracy in Russia
9. Stop abuses against LGBT Russians
10. Stop political assassinations at home and abroad
11. Stop imprisoning those opposed to Putin

We’re also calling on the Russian government to make changes in all the areas before the kick off of the first match in the 2018 World Cup.

The Party have also called for FIFA and the international football community to do more to fight against human rights abuses. 

Commenting on Theresa May’s Brexit speech at Mansion House, Vince Cable MP Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said:

Boris Johnson has made a bizarre appearance on the Today programme where he showed flagrant disregard for history and international affairs by comparing the Northern Ireland border with the Congestion Charge.

Living in Britain today, we all know the scale of the problems approaching us – and yet it seems that no-one has the courage to argue for the radical solutions we need.

Runaway climate change; an aging population; healthcare and housing both in crisis; the passing of the liberal international order; the commercialisation of our private data; the risks and rewards of automation and AI; one tax system for multinationals and the rich, another for everyone else.

The list goes on.

Unless we take firm action we will bow to these pressures, leaving the young and the vulnerable unable to lead the rich, full lives they deserve.

In the face of such daunting forces, we must find radical new solutions to protect the power of the citizen – over their own lives, over the decisions that affect them, over the world around them.

This is the Liberalism of tomorrow – the Liberalism Britain so badly needs.