The Lib Dem chief whip accused the SNP of pursuing a 'decade of division'
Members of the Liberal Democrats are meeting in Brighton this weekend for their autumn conference. Being the first such conference since the record-breaking results the Lib Dems experienced in the 2024 general election, the party is in celebratory mood.
As the first keynote speaker of the conference, the Lib Dems’ chief whip Wendy Chamberlain spoke enthusiastically about these results. Riffing on the slogan that adorns Lib Dem placards, Chamberlain said that in 2024, “It wasn’t so much a case of ‘Liberal Democrats winning here’, it was Liberal Democrats winning everywhere.”
She continued by saying: “We won in Wales, we won back the West Country, we broke new ground in the Home Counties. 72 Liberal Democrat local champions elected by their constituents and who are already working day in, day out fighting for their communities.”
However, Chamberlain didn’t just use her keynote address to celebrate the election of a record number of Lib Dem MPs. She also used it to heavily criticise the SNP’s activities in the House of Commons and in the Scottish Government.
She told the conference: “And just as we did our bit across the UK to deliver a decisive blow to an out of touch and out of time Conservative government, so too did we play our part in beating the SNP.”
She went on to say: “I do think that there’s a lesson for everyone in politics about what happens when you take voters for granted. I’m not sure the SNP had that sense of entitlement a decade ago. But in recent they have used their position on the green benches in Westminster not to work to improve things, but simply to grandstand. And they use their positions of power in the Scottish Government not to deliver, but to overpromise.
“So no wonder so many former SNP voters that I spoke to during the campaign were utterly disillusioned with that party.”
Later, she went on to criticise the SNP’s campaign for an independent Scotland. “It’s not that I disagree with the SNP on the diagnosis,” Chamberlain said, then adding: “It’s that I disagree with them on the cure.”
She continued by telling the conference: “Our Liberal Democrat vision of political reform, of fair votes, of making things work not tearing things down within a fair, federal union is what we want to see.”
Following this, she accused the SNP of pursuing a ‘decade of division’.
Alongside this, Chamberlain made the case that the Lib Dems would be key to removing the SNP from office in Holyrood at the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.
“We have the chance to kick the SNP out of power for the first time in nearly 20 years. It’s time for a change in Scotland. And be in no doubt, Scottish Liberal Democrats are part of that change.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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