The Liberal Democrats believe that our political system needs a total overhaul. Too much power lies in the hands of too few people. Decisions are taken too far away from those they affect.

In Government Liberal Democrats have taken some important steps forward: Liberal Democrats have stopped future Prime Ministers from calling elections when it suits them by fixing the length of Parliaments. Liberal Democrats have given people the right to recall their MP for wrongdoing. Liberal Democrats have cut the influence of money in politics by restricting big campaigns from buying votes in elections. And Liberal Democrats have given much more power to local areas in England and to the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to run things for themselves.

It hasn’t been easy: Labour and the Conservatives ganged up to block our attempts to reform the House of Lords, make Britain’s voting system fairer, and clean up party funding. So there is more work to do in the next Parliament. Liberal Democrats manifesto sets out plans to introduce fair votes at every level, and for every citizen from the age of 16, starting in local government. Liberal Democrats will return to the fight to overhaul the House of Lords to make it democratic and clean up party funding. Liberal Democrats will honour our commitments to devolve more power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and, in England, let local areas take charge of their destinies with “Devolution on Demand”.

Devolution on demand    Party funding reform    Fair votes