Young Liberals (UK)

Young Liberals
Young Liberals
Chairperson	Tara Copeland & Callum Robertson
Vice-Chairperson	Matt Craven
Honorary President	Tessa Munt
Founded	1903; 118 years ago (as NLYL)
Merger of	Union of Liberal Students ; National League of Young Liberals
Headquarters	8–10 Great George Street,; London SW1P 3AE
Ideology	Liberalism (British); Social liberalism; Internationalism; Pro-Europeanism
Mother party	Liberal Democrats
State party	English Young Liberals ; Scottish Young Liberals ; Welsh Young Liberals
International affiliation	International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (IFLRY)
European affiliation	European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)
Website	www.youngliberals.uk

Young Liberals is the youth and student organisation of the British Liberal Democrats. Membership is automatic for members of the Liberal Democrats aged 25 and under, and opt-in for those aged 26–30. It organises a number of fringe events at the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference, which is held twice each year.

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.

Social liberalism, economic liberalism, social justice, internationalism and pro-Europeanism are important components of the group's political philosophy.

The constitution of the Liberal Democrats requires an affiliated youth and student wing.^[5] 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.

Young Liberals is affiliated to both the International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (IFLRY) and European Liberal Youth.^{[citation needed]} Its predecessors include 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, compromising of Welsh Young Liberals in Wales, Scottish Young Liberals in Scotland and English Young Liberals in England. The Convenor of each of these groups organises the regional activity of Young Liberals.^{[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,^[6]) 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.^[7]

Role	Name ^[8]
Chair	Tara Copeland and Callum Robertson ^{[n 1]}
Vice Chair	Matt Craven
Finance Officer	Catriona McDougall
Communications Officer	Aleisha Stansfield
Campaigns Officer	James Arrowsmith and Fergus Ustianowski ^{[n 1]}
Membership Development Officer	Elizabeth Barnard and Thom Campion ^{[n 1]}
Events Officer	Eleanor Kelly
Policy Officer	Janey Little
International Officer	Peter Douglas Banks
Accessibility, Diversity and Standards Officer	Katharine Macy
BAME Officer	Arthur Wu
Non-Portfolio Officer	Rebecca Grubb
English Young Liberals Chair	William Tench
Welsh Young Liberals Chair	Harvey Jones
Scottish Young Liberals Chair	Jack Clark

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c 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
Honorary President	Tessa Munt
Honorary Vice-President	Nick Da Costa
	Elaine Bagshaw
	Scott Emery
	James Cox
	Stuart Wheatcroft
	Charley Hasted

Committees[]

In addition to the Executive, there are six 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.

Campaigns Committee[]

Role		Name
Campaigns Officer (Chair)		James Arrowsmith and Fergus Ustianowski (job-share)
Elected Members		Friso de Graaf
Elected Members		Vacant
State Representatives	England	Fergus Ustianowski
	Scotland	Jake Stevenson
	Wales	Leena Farhat & Glyn Preston
Non-voting members
Communications Officer		Aleisha Stansfield
International Committee Rep		Adam Lawless

Events Committee[]

Role		Name
Events Officer (Chair)		Eleanor Kelly
Elected Members		Jamie Siviter
Elected Members		Adam Belcher
State Representatives	England	William Tench
	Scotland	Jack Clark
	Wales	Vacant
Non-voting members
Policy Officer		Janey Little
Accessibility, Standards and Diversity Officer		Katharine Macy
Membership and Branch Development Officer		Elizabeth Barnard & Thom Campion

Policy Committee[]

Role		Name
Policy Officer (Chair)		Janey Little
Elected Members		Danny Davidson
Elected Members		Abigail Bowden
State Representatives	England	Patrick Gilbert
	Scotland	Andrew Reynolds
	Wales	Brendan Roberts

International Congress Delegates Committee[]

Role	Name
International Officer (Chair)	Peter Douglas Banks
Elected Members	Adam Lawless
	Katharine Macy
	Frederick Fisk

Communications Committee[]

Role		Name
Communications Officer (Chair)		Aleisha Stansfield
Elected Members		Sophie West
Elected Members		Vacant
State Representatives	England	Kieron Franks
	Scotland	Desmond Bouse
	Wales	Matthew Hobbs
Non-voting members
Campaigns Officer		Vacant
Vice Chair		Matt Craven

Diversity Committee[]

Role	Name
Accessibility, Diversity and Standards Officer (Chair)	Katharine Macy
Elected Members	Lucy Tonge
	Andrew Rushton
	Kobe Bibbon
	Janey Little
	Carol Hayward
	Oliver Jones-Lyons
	Brendan Roberts
	Jessica Tudor

Branches[]

Outside of universities, Young Liberals eschews a formal, hierarchical branch structure, instead encouraging members to organise themselves and to use their local Liberal Democrat Party for financial affairs.^[9] 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. Liberal Youth Northern Ireland maintains a close working relationship with Alliance Youth, the youth wing of the Alliance Party.

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.

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.

Conference Locations[]

Year	Summer Conference/Activate Venue		Winter Conference Venue		Notes
2010		University of Manchester, Manchester		University of York, York
2011		'None'		University of Essex	Essex conference called "Autumn Conference" no Activate held
2012		Adversane, Billingshurst		Manchester
2013		Watchfield, Oxfordshire		Cardiff
2014		Cambridge		None
	Winter Conference Venue		Summer Conference/Activate Venue
2015		Leeds		Birmingham	From 2015 Winter Conference was held at the start of the year instead of the end
2016		Edinburgh		Bristol
2017		Sheffield		University of Nottingham, Nottingham
2018		Oxford		Swansea University, Swansea
2019		Glasgow		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		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.

History[]

Liberal Democrat mergers[]

The organisation was formerly 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.^[10] 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).

The Liberal Party and the SDP each had separate student and youth wings 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.

List of Chairs[]

Organisation	Name	Term in Office	Notes
Young Liberals	Tara Copeland	2021–Present	Co-Chairs
	Callum Robertson	2021–Present	Co-Chairs
	Matt Craven	2021	Acting Chair
	Callum Robertson	2020 - 2021	Co-Chairs
	Jack Worrall	2020 - 2021	Co-Chairs
	Tara Copeland	2019 - 2020
	Callum James Littlemore	2018 - 2019	Co-Chairs
	Dan Schmeising	2018 - 2019	Co-Chairs
	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	Chair
		2017 - 2018	Chair
	Charlie Kingsbury	2016 - 2017
	Michael Chappell	2015 - 2016	Co-Chairs
Charlie Kingsbury		2015 - 2016	Co-Chairs
Liberal Youth	Alex Harding	2014 - 2015
	Sarah Harding	2013 - 2014
	Sam Fisk	2013	Chair; Elected following Tom Wood's resignation.
	Kavya Kaushik	2013	Chair; Elected following Tom Wood's resignation.
	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

Notes[]

^ Chair from 27 July to 31 October
^ Acting Chair from 12 May to 27 July

References[]

^ The Green Book – new directions for Liberals in government, Mike Tuffrey, 5 March 2013, Liberal Democrat Voice
^ How Lib Dem members describe their political identity: ‘liberal’, ‘progressive’ and ‘social liberal’ top the bill, Stephen Tall, 30 April 2011, Liberal Democrat Voice
^ "Brexit". www.libdems.org.uk. 17 April 2018.
^ Elgot, Jessica (28 May 2017). "Tim Farron: Lib Dems' pro-European strategy will be proved right". The Guardian.
^ "The Federal Constitutionof the Liberal Democrats" (PDF). Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
^ "Meet The Exec". Retrieved 13 March 2018.
^ "The Federal Constitution – Liberal Youth" (PDF). Archived from the original (pdf) on 3 December 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
^ "Meet the Executive". Young Liberals. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
^ [1] Archived 30 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Nick Clegg launches Liberal Youth" (Press release). Liberal Democrat Voice. 25 March 2008. Retrieved 29 January 2013.

[JobShare-9] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Job Share

[12] Chair from 27 July to 31 October

[13] Acting Chair from 12 May to 27 July

[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] "The Federal Constitutionof the Liberal Democrats" (PDF). Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 17 April 2020.

[exec-6] "Meet The Exec". Retrieved 13 March 2018.

[libyouthconst-7] "The Federal Constitution – Liberal Youth" (PDF). Archived from the original (pdf) on 3 December 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2011.

[8] "Meet the Executive". Young Liberals. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2021.

[10] [1] Archived 30 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine

[11] "Nick Clegg launches Liberal Youth" (Press release). Liberal Democrat Voice. 25 March 2008. Retrieved 29 January 2013.

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