Young Liberals (UK)

Young Liberals is the youth and student organisation of the British Liberal Democrats. Membership is automatic for members of the Liberal Democrats aged under 30.^[6] It organises a number of fringe events at the Liberal Democrat Conference, which is held twice each year.

Young Liberals
President	Louisa Porritt
Chairperson	Janey Little
Founded	December 2016
Preceded by	Liberal Youth (2008—2016) Liberal Democrat Youth & Students (1990—2008)
Headquarters	Top Floor 1 Vincent Square London. SW1P 2PN
Ideology	Liberalism (British) Social liberalism^[1] Internationalism^[2] Pro-Europeanism^[3]^[4]
European affiliation	European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)
International affiliation	International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (IFLRY)
Colours	Orange
Mother Party	Liberal Democrats
State Party	English Young Liberals Scottish Young Liberals Welsh Young Liberals
Councillors^[nb]^[5]	30 / 18,725
Website
www.youngliberals.uk

Young Liberals exists to campaign on issues affecting young people and students, with branches across the UK. The organisation is run by young people and acts as a pressure group within the Liberal Democrats.^{[citation needed]}

Social liberalism, economic liberalism, social justice, internationalism and pro-Europeanism are important components of the group's political philosophy.^{[citation needed]}

The constitution of the Liberal Democrats requires an affiliated youth and student wing.^[7] Accordingly, Young Liberals is a Specified Associated Organisation (SAO) of the party. It is granted voting rights on various Liberal Democrat committees, such as the Party's Federal Board.^{[citation needed]}

Young Liberals is affiliated to both the International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (IFLRY) and European Liberal Youth.^[8] Its predecessors include Liberal Youth, founded in 2008, and Liberal Democrat Youth & Students, founded in 1990. The earliest organisations were the National League of Young Liberals (NLYL), founded in 1903 and the Union of Liberal Students (ULS), founded in 1920.

Organisation and structure

Federal organisation

Young Liberals is the main party, organised in Great Britain on a federal basis, comprising Welsh Young Liberals in Wales, Scottish Young Liberals in Scotland and English Young Liberals in England.^{[citation needed]}

Executive

The federal organisation of Young Liberals organises liaisons with Liberal Democrats and affiliated organisations. The Federal Executive (current positions: Chair, Vice-Chair, Events Officer, Campaigns Officer, Communications Officer, Finance Officer, International Officer, Policy Officer, Membership Development Officer, Accessibility, Diversity and Standards Officer and Non Portfolio Officer,^[9]) operates alongside committees for Conferences, Policy and International affairs. These committees, barring ex officio members such as representatives from state organisations and delegates from the executive, are elected by the Young Liberals membership via an all-member ballot, terms beginning on 1 November and are responsible to Conference. The English, Scottish and Welsh representatives are elected by the memberships of the state organisations - English Young Liberals, Scottish Young Liberals and Welsh Young Liberals.^[10]

Role	Name ^[11]
Chair	Janey Little
Secretary	Katharine Macy
Fundraising Officer	Vacant
Communications Officer	Harvey Jones
Elections Officer	Nicholas Orford-Williams and Miguel Smith ^[n 1]
Membership Development Officer	Will Tennison
Branch Development Officer	Fergus Kirman and Joshan Parmar ^[n 1]
Events Officer	Lucas North
Policy Officer	Ulysse Abbate
International Officer	Seán Bennett and Kai Pischke ^[n 1]
Accessibility, Diversity and Standards Officer	Emily Baker
Racial Equity, Diversity and Liberation Officer (REDL)	Chang Liu
Non-Portfolio Officer	Rebecca Jones
English Young Liberals Chair	Joe Norris
Welsh Young Liberals Chair	Josh Rutty and Leena Farhat
Scottish Young Liberals Chair	Leo Dempster

1. Job share

Honorary roles

There is an Honorary President and six Honorary Vice-Presidents of the organisation, who are elected by the membership to work alongside the executive to support the organisation, advise and often act as a form of institutional memory as well as give the Executive guidance and to act as spokespeople within the wider party.

Role	Name^[12]
Honorary President	Luisa Porritt
Honorary Vice-President	Eleanor Kelly
	Dan Schmeising
	Chloe Hutchinson
	Cheney Payne
	Matt Craven
	Huw James

Committees

In addition to the Executive, there are four committees which are responsible for the administration and implementation of its area, working alongside the executive. Committees are chaired by the Officer that is responsible for that area, for example the Policy Officer chairs the Policy Committee, and the other members of the committee are made up of members elected by the membership alongside the Officers and, with the exception of the International Committee and Diversity Committee, representatives from each of the three state organisations.^{[citation needed]}

Communications and Campaigns Committee

Role		Name^[13]
Communications Officer		Harvey Jones
Elected Members		Nathan Hunt
		Ewan Redpath
		Liv Walker
State Representatives	England	Rowan Fitton
	Scotland	Leo Dempster
	Wales	Ianto Evans
Non-voting members
International Committee Rep		Vacant

Diversity Committee

Role	Name
Accessibility, Diversity and Standards Officer	Emily Baker
Elected Members
Minority Ethnic Representative	Timi Jibogu
Disabled Representative	Bex Foulsham
LGBA+ Representative	Harvey Thomas-Benton
Trans Representative	Kobe Bibbon
Care Experienced Representative	Brendan Roberts
Social Mobility Representative	Brad Jones
Under 18 Representative	Johan Prinsloo
Social Mobility Representative	Keeley O'Keefe

Elections Committee

Role		Name
Young Liberals Chair		Janey Little
Federal Elections Officers		Nicholas Orford-Williams and Miguel Smith
Federal Communications Officer		Harvey Jones
Membership Development Officer		William Tennison
State Representatives	England	Vacant
	Scotland	Leo-Dempster
	Wales	Josh Rutty

Role		Name
Federal Young Liberals Chair		Janey Little
Federal Election Officers		Nicholas Orford-Williams
		Miguel Smith
Federal Communications Officer		Harvey Jones
Federal Membership Development Officer		William Tennison
State Representatives	England	Vacant
	Scotland	Leo Dempster
	Wales	Josh Rutty
Campaigns Officer		Felix Andrew
Membership Development Officer		Ollie Bradfield

Events Committee

Role		Name
Events Officer		Lucas North
Elected Members		Joe Norris
		Guy Hotchin
State Representatives	England	Huw James
	Scotland	Leo Dempster
	Wales	Josh Rutty
Non-voting members
Membership Development Officer		William Tennison
Accessibility, Diversity and Standards Officer		Emily Baker
Policy Officer		Ulysse Abbate

Finances and Resources Committee

Role		Name
Registered Treasurer		Lucas North
State Representatives (State Chairs)	England	Joe Norriss
	Scotland	Leo Dempster
	Wales	Josh Rutty and Leena Farhat
Other Members
Federal Chair		Janey Little
Fundraising Officer		Vacant
Designated Safeguarding Officer		Callum Clark

International Committee

Role	Name
Co-International Officers	Sean Bennett and Kai Pischke
Elected Members	Rowan Fitton
	Kate Sutcliffe
	Arthur Wu

Policy Committee

Role		Name
Policy Officer		Ulysse Abbate
Elected Members		Cormac Evans
		Rebecca Jones
		Harvey Thomas-Benton
State Representatives	England	James Bliss
	Scotland	Leo Dempster
	Wales	Josh Rutty

Branches

Young Liberals Branches are organised under regions and nations, themselves under the Federal Young Liberals. Active members communicate with their local Youth Chair, who liaises with the parent party's representatives and with the federal Young Liberals executive. In this way the activities of young and student members remain formally independent from but closely engaged with the Liberal Democrats.

Young Liberals has had an active branch in Northern Ireland since 2010, under the name of Liberal Youth Northern Ireland, which operates as the youth branch of the Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats. Since 2014 it has become an official branch of Young Liberals, though for administrative purposes it is a branch of the English Young Liberals rather than a separate state branch.^{[citation needed]} Liberal Youth Northern Ireland maintains a close working relationship with Alliance Youth, the youth wing of the Alliance Party.^{[citation needed]}

Conferences

The federal Conference is the sovereign body of the Young Liberals and has power to determine policy and direction. The federal Young Liberals usually hosts two conferences a year, a conference in the Winter and a training weekend known as 'Activate' in the Summer, which also acts as the constitutionally mandated Annual General Meeting. At conferences policy motions which shape YL policy and amendments to the organisations constitution are debated, alongside training and speaker sessions.^{[citation needed]}

In addition, during each conference there is an Executive Scrutiny session, whereby members of the executive submit reports to conference on their activities and actions in their job. After each report motions on officers are debated, wherein any member can submit a Motion of commendation, Motion of censure or Motion of no confidence in an officer. Motions of commendation and censure are non-binding opinions of conference passed by a simple majority, expressing either positive or negative opinion on the actions of an officer. Motions of no confidence are binding motions which if passed have the effect of removing an officer from their position and require a two thirds majority in order to pass.^{[citation needed]}

All Conferences following Manchester 2021, the first in person conference following the COVID-19 pandemic, are held as hybrid conferences. Hybrid conferences allow members to join in debates via Confera, an in-house developed and bespoke software package (and mobile app) which allows hybrid participation and voting in democratic events.^{[citation needed]}

Conference locations

Year	Summer Conference/Activate Venue^[citation needed]		Winter Conference Venue^[citation needed]		Notes
2010	NW	University of Manchester, Manchester	Y&H	University of York, York
2011		'None'	EoE	University of Essex	Essex conference called "Autumn Conference" no Activate held
2012	SE/SE	Adversane, Billingshurst	NW	Manchester
2013	SE/SC	Watchfield, Oxfordshire		Cardiff
2014	EoE	Cambridge		None
	Winter Conference Venue		Summer Conference/Activate Venue
2015	Y&H	Leeds	WM	Birmingham	From 2015 Winter Conference was held at the start of the year instead of the end
2016		Edinburgh	SW/WC	Bristol
2017	Y&H	Sheffield	EM	University of Nottingham, Nottingham
2018	SE/SC	Oxford		Swansea University, Swansea
2019		Glasgow	LON	London
2020		None		Online	Summer Conference was due to be held in Birmingham, but was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021		Online	NW	Manchester/Online hybrid	Winter Conference was due to be held in-person, but was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Summer Conference first conference to be a hybrid conference and allow attendance online and in person.
2022		Edinburgh	WM	Birmingham	All conferences from Manchester 2021 onwards are a hybrid conference so both conferences hybrid.
2023	SE/SC	Reading	NE	Newcastle/Gateshead
2024	Y&H	Sheffield

Special Conferences

In addition to the two ordinary Conferences the Young Liberals may also hold additional "Special Conferences". The Special Conferences require a requisition submitted to the Young Liberals Federal Executive signed by 40 full members, including at least 4 members of each State Organisation. The Special Conferences debates business specified in the requisition, although additional business may be taken at the discretion of the Executive.^{[citation needed]}

The threshold of a Special Conference used to be significantly higher, standing at 200 members, however with the success of Online Conferences it was lowered as they could be held online with ease.^{[citation needed]}

Year	Special Conference Venue	Purpose	Notes
2022	Online	"Young Liberals Endorsements for Party President"	Formally endorsed Mark Pack for President of the Liberal Democrats in Liberal Democrat Internal Elections.

History

Liberal Democrat mergers

The Liberal Party and the SDP each had separate student and youth wings, including the Young Liberals and the Young Social Democrats until their merger in 1988. These merged in England to form the Student Liberal Democrats and the Young Liberal Democrats of England. In Scotland, there was a separate Scottish Young Liberal Democrats (which also included students of all ages). Liberal Democrat Youth and Students was itself created in 1993 from a merger of the Student Liberal Democrats and the Young Liberal Democrats of England who had shared many resources in the run-up. The merger talks were overseen by a committee which included Sarah Gurling, who later married the late Charles Kennedy. LDYS reorganised into a federal structure in 2000 and then admitted Scottish Young Liberal Democrats as its Scottish federal unit in 2002 - forming a single GB-wide organisation for the first time since the combined ULS-NLYL committees of the 1970s.

The organisation was then known as Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS). Spring 2008 saw LDYS renamed as Liberal Youth, at an event hosted by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg.^[14] Liberal Youth is the successor organisation to all the youth and student wings of the Liberal Democrats, the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, including the Union of Liberal Students, the National League of Young Liberals, (the Liberal party's youth wings), the Young Social Democrats and Students for Social Democracy (the youth and student wings of the Social Democratic Party).

List of chairs

Organisation	Name	Term in Office	Notes
Young Liberals	Janey Little	2022-present
	Fergus Ustianowski	2022	Co-Chairs
	Janey Little
	Eleanor Kelly	2021–2022
	Tara Copeland	2021	Co-Chairs
	Callum Robertson
	Matt Craven	2021	Acting Chair
	Callum Robertson	2020 - 2021	Co-Chairs
	Jack Worrall
	Tara Copeland	2019 - 2020
	Callum James Littlemore	2018 - 2019	Co-Chairs
	Dan Schmeising
	Finn Conway	2018^[note 1]	Elected on 27 July following resignation of previous chair.
	Thomas Gravatt	2018^[note 2]	Acting Chair
	Thomas Gravatt	2017 - 2018
	Charlie Kingsbury	2016 - 2017
Liberal Youth	Michael Chappell	2015 - 2016	Co-Chairs
	Charlie Kingsbury
	Alex Harding	2014 - 2015
	Sarah Harding	2013 - 2014
	Sam Fisk	2013	Chair; Elected following Tom Wood's resignation.
	Kavya Kaushik
	Tom Wood	2011 - 2013	Resigned part way through second term
	Martin Shapland	2010 - 2011
	Elaine Bagshaw	2008 - 2010	Resigned part way through second term
Liberal Democrat Youth and Students	Mark Gettleson	2006 - 2008
	Gez Smith	2005 - 2006
	Chris Lomax	2004 - 2005
	Brian Robson	2003 - 2004
	Alison Goldsworthy	2002 - 2003
	Miranda Piercy	2000 - 2002
	Geoff Payne	1999–2000
	Polly Martin	1998–1999
	Hywel Morgan	1997–1998
	Ruth Berry	1996–1997
	Tim Prater	1995–1996
	Phil Jones	1995
	Alex Wilcock	1994–1995
	Kiron Reid	1993–1994

For Chairs of predecessors, see List of National Chairs of the Union of Liberal Students and List of Chairs of the National League of Young Liberals.

See also

• English Young Liberals – English wing of Young Liberals
• Scottish Young Liberals – Scottish wing of Young Liberals
• Welsh Young Liberals – Welsh wing of Young Liberals
• Liberal Democrat Conference
• Liberal Reform
• Social Liberal Forum
• Cambridge University Liberal Association
• Oxford University Liberal Democrats
• Young Labour
• Young Conservatives

Notes

1. Chair from 27 July to 31 October
2. Acting Chair from 12 May to 27 July

References

1. The Green Book – new directions for Liberals in government, Mike Tuffrey, 5 March 2013, Liberal Democrat Voice
2. How Lib Dem members describe their political identity: ‘liberal’, ‘progressive’ and ‘social liberal’ top the bill, Stephen Tall, 30 April 2011, Liberal Democrat Voice
3. "Brexit". www.libdems.org.uk. 17 April 2018.
4. Elgot, Jessica (28 May 2017). "Tim Farron: Lib Dems' pro-European strategy will be proved right". The Guardian.
5. "Open Council Data UK". Retrieved 28 August 2023.
6. "YL Membership". Young Liberals. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
7. "The Federal Constitutionof the Liberal Democrats" (PDF). Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
8. "About Us - International". Young Liberals. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
9. "Meet The Exec". Retrieved 13 March 2018.
10. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
11. "Executive". Young Liberals. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
12. "Annual Elections 2021". Young Liberals. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
13. "Annual Elections 2022". Young Liberals. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
14. "Nick Clegg launches Liberal Youth" (Press release). Liberal Democrat Voice. 25 March 2008. Retrieved 29 January 2013.