The sickening treatmeant of the Uyghur people by the Chinese Government is genocide. 

And we cannot stand idly by while these gross violations of human rights are perpetrated. 

The Uyghur population are being rounded up and forced into internment camps.

Soaring temperatures worldwide, flash flooding in central London and increasing numbers of wildfires. These are just a few ecological disasters we are seeing as a result of climate change. It is painfully obvious we must act. 

We need to be ambitious. It is only by working with every single nation across the globe that we can hope to take on this challenge. 

Climate inaction is simply unacceptable. As president of COP 26, we should lead by example. 

The UK can lead the world in climate policy. We are hosting the UN Climate Conference (COP 26) in November 2021. We must lead the world to do what is required: limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. 

There are almost one hundred thousand children in care in the UK and they face significant disadvantages in life.

they face significant disadvantages in life”

The average child in care enters care at age 14, which is a crucial point academically. Only 12% of care leavers have entered higher education by the age of 23 and many care leavers rely on Universal Credit as their main source of income.

Too often children in care ‘pinball around the system’ meaning they don’t have the opportunity to build strong support networks. Care leavers have sometimes lived in up to 20 foster placements or care homes. On leaving care, 1 in 4 young people have to sofa surf, and 4 in 10 are unable to pay the required deposit for housing.

they don’t have the opportunity to build strong support networks”

This is simply unacceptable.

That’s why at our conference today, members voted for new policy supporting children in care and care leavers:

1. Increasing support for care leavers, so they all have access to support with advisors or mentors until age 25 including the option of remaining in care under full support of the local authority.
2. Supporting children with more control of where they live whilst in care to limit the unsettling disruption of switching between foster homes.
3. Doubling the Care Leaver Bursary from £1000 to £2000.
4. Offering extra tutoring and mentoring from age 13 as children in care are far more likely to have had hugely disrupted and inconsistent schooling.
5. Care leavers should be supported with access to university and given a mentor to help with university, apprenticeship and sixth form decisions.

Read our new policy in full

All children and care leavers deserve far more support than is currently on offer.

The Government must introduce further measures to ensure that adverse circumstances early in life are not a barrier to reaching a young person’s full potential.

The world’s largest and most successful companies, including Google, Amazon and Facebook, are avoiding paying taxes in the countries where they operate. Instead, they shift their profits and hide in tax havens.

they shift their profits and hide in tax havens”

They must pay their fair share. And to do that, we need a global minimum corporation tax.

Amazon paid just £293m in tax in the UK last year, while its sales surged by 26% to £13.73bn.

This isn’t right.

At the G7 summit in June, major economies reached an international consensus on tackling tax avoidance. The Lib Dems are proud to support the breakthrough championed by President Biden for a global corporation tax rate.

Big business must pay their way. But the UK Government failed to push through some key improvements that would have made the system fairer and more effective.

Big business must pay their way”

To press the Government to improve the deal, our members at conference today voted for new policy:

1. Backing President Biden’s proposal for a global minimum rate of corporation tax at 21%
2. Closing loopholes which could allow tech-giants such as Amazon to avoid tax due to a 10% profit threshold.
3. Keeping the Digital Service Tax until the deal is finalised. This is the tax on search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces. Withdrawing from this as the government plans could result in a combined tax cut of £232.5 million for Amazon, Facebook, Google and eBay.
4. Work with low and middle-income countries to ensure the global corporation tax rate benefits them too.

Read our new policy in full

Tax dodging is entirely unacceptable. Internet-based multinationals such as Amazon are some of the most valuable and profitable companies in the world.

These corporations must pay their way.

Creating a fair global tax system calls for greater international cooperation. We must do more to listen to the concerns of low and middle-income countries. We must ensure the legislation we pass does not result in a tax cut for the world’s most profitable companies.

The Lib Dems are calling out the Government. We all pay taxes to contribute to our society. The time has come for big business to contribute too.

99% of businesses in our economy are small businesses. Unfortunately the Government is simply not doing enough to protect them.

The pandemic devastated small businesses as they were forced shut overnight. Retail and hospitality were among the hardest hit. As a result, many businesses are in a rent-arrears crisis with unpaid commercial rent totalling £6 billion.

The pandemic devastated small businesses”

Covid-19 also took a toll on the UK’s towns and highstreets. People lost employment opportunities in the area and the sense of community fostered by local businesses. The Federation of Small Business has released a dire warning that 250,000 businesses could be forced to close by the end of the year.

250,000 businesses could be forced to close by the end of the year”

Small businesses can’t have their problems ignored. They need action now.

Today at conference our members called for dedicated support schemes to protect those sectors worst affected by Covid. Included in our small business support package is:

• Giving all small businesses a cash injection to create jobs. We would do this by quadrupling annual Employment Allowance for two years, allowing them to pay zero national insurance contributions for for their first five employees
• Maintaining the 5% VAT for hospitality and tourism until the end of 2021/22.
• Supporting jobs that are still impacted by the pandemic, by extending furlough and self employed income support to the end of 2021.
• Members also called on the Government to fix Kickstart and focus on tackling unemployment amongst young people – especially from a black and ethnic minority background.
• Helping small businesses trade with the EU by renewing the Brexit Support Fund.
• Unifying all the information on UK-EU trade on a single platform where it is easily accessible.

Read our new policy in full

This government has failed countless small businesses and employees during this pandemic. We call for clear policy and not last minute knee-jerk reactions.

It is urgent that the government puts in place the right support for economic recovery post pandemic.

We must act now to ensure our economy is open, fair and creates new job opportunities.