Young Liberals (UK)

Young Liberals
President	Luisa 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 Internationalism Pro-Europeanism
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
House of Commons	1 / 650
Councillors[nb]	30 / 18,725
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 under 30. It organises a number of fringe events at the Liberal Democrat 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. 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. 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.

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,) 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.

Role	Name
Chair	Janey Little
Secretary	Katharine Macy
Fundraising Officer	Vacant
Communications Officer	Sarah Anderson
Elections Officer	Nicholas Orford-Williams and Miguel Smith
Membership Development Officer	Will Tennison
Branch Development Officer	Fergus Kirman and Joshan Parmar
Events Officer	Lucas North
Policy Officer	Ulysse Abbate
International Officer	Tom Jordan and Rowan Fitton
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

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	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.

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 have 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.

History

The Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) each had their own separate student and youth wings, including the Young Liberals and the Young Social Democrats. In 1988, the Liberal Party and the SDP merged to form the Liberal Democrats.

Within England, the National League of Young Liberals merged with the Young Social Democrats to form Young Liberal Democrats of England. Additionally the Union of Liberal Students merged with the Students for Social Democracy to form the Student Liberal Democrats. Within Scotland, a separate organ was formed from the Scottish Liberal Students, the Scottish Young Liberal Democrats, which also included students of all ages.

Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS) was itself created in 1993 from the 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. 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 Britain-wide organisation for the first time since the combined ULS-NLYL committees of the 1970s.

Spring 2008 saw LDYS renamed as Liberal Youth, at an event hosted by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg.

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.

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.

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 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		Nottingham
2018		Oxford		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	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. All subsequent conferences have been hybrid.
2022		Edinburgh		Birmingham
2023		Reading		Gateshead
2024		Sheffield		London

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.

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.

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.

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	Elected on 27 July following resignation of previous chair.
	Thomas Gravatt	2018	Acting Chair
	Thomas Gravatt	2017 - 2018	Co-Chairs until their resignation in 2018
	Hannah Ashworth
	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