Lib Dem members have passed a motion at their annual autumn conference calling on the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to review its new code of practice on trans people.

The new code of practice, which came into force on 5 August, only allows people to use public spaces based on their biological sex at birth.

An emergency motion submitted to Lib Dem conference by LGBT+ Lib Dems yesterday evening expressed “concern” that the new guidance “bars trans people from facilities aligned with their lived gender”. 

It described the rules as “discriminatory” and “unworkable”, and called for the EHRC to issue a new code of practice that is “inclusive, workable and ensures everybody can safely access public facilities and providers are protected from legal risk”. 

It also called for a dedicated cross-party parliamentary committee “to review how the law should better protect trans people’s rights”.

The motion passed easily on a show of hands. 

One speaker in favour of the motion, Rebecca Jones, said that as a trans woman she was “tired of being a culture war prop”.

She said: “You now fear using public spaces. You fear anyone that looks at you too much in case they hate trans people enough that they put you at risk. All whilst your government repeats the words ‘dignity’ and ‘respect’, whilst doing everything in their power to ensure trans people do not have them.”

Earlier in the day the party leader, Ed Davey, told the BBC he supported the motion, calling the EHRC guidance not “fit for purpose”.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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The deputy leader of the Lib Dems, Daisy Cooper, has backed Ed Davey as leader and said he is the right person to lead the party into the next general election.

Speaking to Channel 4 News from the Lib Dems’ annual autumn conference in Bournemouth, Cooper “fundamentally disagreed” with criticisms of his leadership.

Ayshah Tull, a Channel 4 News correspondent read out a quote from Julian Brazil, the Lib Dem leader of Devon County Council, who said the party is  “sleepwalking into irrelevance” under Davey.

Brazil told the BBC that the party was “lacking ambition” and “not saying the things that people can relate to”.

Tull said: “That’s got to hurt hasn’t it?”. 

Cooper responded: “No, I just disagree fundamentally. Look, Ed is an economist, he’s a former climate minister and he’s a carer.”

She added: “I can’t think of another person in Parliament who has the same experience to deliver for people, planet and prosperity. He’s the right leader for us.”

Tull then said that a Lib Dem supporter had told Channel 4 News’ Paul McNamara that Cooper could be the right person to replace Davey.

Cooper’s response was “That’s very sweet, but there’s no vacancy”, and again backed Davey, saying “Ed is the right person to take us into the next general election”.

The Channel 4 News reporter then put it to Cooper that there had been “disquiet” among Lib Dem ranks, as Labour, the Conservatives and Reform have all been “having their difficulties over the year and you haven’t been able to capitalise”.

Cooper denied that this was a “fair assessment”, and said that the Lib Dems had got the best general election result ever in the party’s history at the 2024 election, electing 72 MPs. 

The party now has 71 MPs following the suspension of Cameron Thomas MP after he was arrested during a police investigation.

Cooper added: “Now we are half way through the Parliament we are firmly fixing our eyes on the next general election, winning more seats so we can help build a liberal country and also stop Farage and Badenoch getting the keys to number 10.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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The Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has said Reform doesn’t represent the majority of British people and that the party only cares about its bank balance.

Davey told Lib Dem conference on Saturday that Reform fights because of the mega donations it receives from crypto billionaires.

He praised conference speakers earlier in the day for sharing stories of “why we care and why we fight”.

By contrast, he said Reform “care about their own bank balance”.

He added: “They fight because two crypto billionaires gave them seventy-two million quid”. 

Davey also said: “Reform know they don’t speak for the real United Kingdom. That they don’t represent the majority of the British people.

Referring to the two donations of £36 million that Reform received from crypto billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo on the 11 and 12 September, he said: “They wouldn’t need seventy-two million pounds if they did, would they?”.

Ahead of the next election, Davey said the Lib Dems will fight against Reform’s “nasty populism” and “arsenal of hate and lies”. 

Davey recalled his first political campaign as a student, when he successfully campaigned for his university college, Jesus College, Oxford, to boycott Barclays, due to its investments in apartheid-era South Africa.

He said his party will fight again to end injustices and “defeat the nasty populism of Trump, Le Pen, the AfD and the rest”.

In a swipe at Elon Musk, he said his party would “fight to stop the world’s richest man, who learnt racism in apartheid South Africa, from funding racism around the world”.

Davey said the Lib Dems will also “fight against Reform, and their seventy-two-million-pound arsenal of hate and lies”.

He also referred to “the fight to defend the RNLI”, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, after volunteers for the coastal rescue charity were recently targeted online amid a rise in anti-immigration campaigning. 

The Lib Dem leader said that “what Farage is counting on to get him into No 10” is that people get “tired, depressed, fed up of seeing Zia Yusuf on BBC Question Time week after week”.

He said he hoped Reform was watching, “Because what they’ll see, what they’ll hear is a party that won’t be ground down. That won’t be deterred. That won’t give up the fight”.

The Lib Dems’ autumn conference started on Saturday 19 September and will run until Tuesday 22 September.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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It’s going from bad to worse for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage after a poll found that he loses in head-to-head polling against every other major party leader, when the public are asked who would make a better Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has more than double the number of people who think he makes a better PM than Nigel Farage, with the Labour leader on 48% compared to Farage on 22%.

Farage is also beaten by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch when it comes to who the British public view as a better PM, with Badenoch on 41% compared to Farage’s 17%.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey is also ahead of Farage on 35% compared to 24%, while Green leader Zack Polanski also beats the Reform UK leader on 29% compared to Farage’s 27%.

Looks like Farage isn’t quite the ‘man of the people’ he thought he was.

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Nigel Farage has complained about not being invited to cross-party social care talks later today, despite him not currently being an MP.

The new prime minister Andy Burnham invited Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey to an online meeting to discuss how to fix social care.

Badenoch cannot attend, so she will send her shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew instead.

Burnham said he is “serious about fixing this issue and to do that, we have to find common ground and listen to others”. 

He did not invite Reform, the Green Party or the SNP to the talks. 

Farage, who is not currently an MP after he resigned earlier this month, reacted angrily to not being invited, claiming that it was because Burnham is conspiring about raising taxes to pay for social care.

The Reform leader said: “It’s now clear that Burnham is conspiring behind closed doors to foist further tax rises on the country. The fact Davey and Badenoch are going tells you all you need to know… this is the uniparty in action”.

Reform’s treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick also criticised Burnham for leaving Farage out of the meeting. 

Jenrick said: “I’m not surprised that Andy Burnham hasn’t invited Nigel Farage. If he had, Nigel would have told him he’d fight this tax rise all the way.  

“That Ed Davey and Kemi Badenoch are going along with this tells you all you need to know about their parties.”

He added: “If we need to, Reform will stand alone to fight this cruel tax. Nigel and I will not see millions of families betrayed like this.”

One social media user responded, stating: “I’m not surprised that Andy Burnham hasn’t invited Nigel Farage either because apart from the fact @Nigel_Farage isn’t an MP @reformparty_uk LTD have no serious social care policy other than “Nigel would have told him he’d fight this tax rise all the way”.

Another wrote: “Nigel is not even a member of parliament currently and is campaigning a by-election against a bin. 

“Reform is not even a big party in the commons, the greens or restore weren’t invited either were they?”.

Burnham has yet to set out how any reforms to social care will be funded.

One funding model, reportedly part of a series of options drawn up by civil servants at the Department for Health and Social Care, would be workers paying into a privately-managed fund to pay for their care in old age.

However, Burnham has not yet announced that this is the model he will use to fund social care.

Badenoch has already written an open letter to Burnham explicitly demanding he ‘rule out any tax rises or increased borrowing’ to fund social care reform, which calls into question Reform’s claim that the purpose of the meeting is to conspire about tax rises behind closed doors. 

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

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Andy Burnham is rated as making a better Prime Minister than all other major party leaders, a new poll has found.

In what will be welcome news for Burnham, the polling carried out by YouGov, found that Burnham beat Reform leader Nigel Farage when the public were asked who would make a better Prime Minister by 48% to 22%.

When it comes to Green Party leader Zack Polanski, Burnham beats him by 45% to 9%.

The new Prime Minister beats Lib Dem leader Ed Davey by 41% to 8%, while also defeating Tory leader Kemi Badenoch by 38% to 26%.

It will be welcome news for progressives that Burnham is so far ahead of Farage, showing that there is nothing inevitable about Reform’s rise.

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