Origins (1977–1983)

The Liberal Party had existed in different forms for over 300 years.^[21] During the 19th and early 20th century, it had been one of the United Kingdom's two dominant political parties, along with the Conservative Party. Following World War I, it was pushed into third place by the Labour Party and underwent a gradual decline throughout the rest of the 20th century.^[22] In the 1970s, the Liberal leader David Steel began contemplating how an alliance with other parties could return it to political power.^[23] In 1977, he formed a pact with Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan to back Callaghan's government in a motion of no confidence. This angered many Liberals and damaged them electorally.^[24] In the 1979 general election, the Liberals lost three seats in the House of Commons; the Conservatives, led by Margaret Thatcher, won the election.^[25]

Within the Labour Party, many centrists were uncomfortable with the growing influence of the hard left, who were calling for the UK to leave the European Economic Community and unilaterally disarm as a nuclear power. In January 1981, four senior Labour MPs—Bill Rodgers, Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, and David Owen, known as the "Gang of Four"—issued the Limehouse Declaration in which they announced their split from Labour. This led to the formal launch of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in March.^[26] One of its first decisions was to negotiate an electoral arrangement with the Liberals, facilitated between Jenkins, who was the first SDP leader, and Steel.^[27]

The new alliance initially did well in opinion polls.^[28] The SDP and Liberals agreed to contest alternating parliamentary by-elections; between 1981 and 1982, the SDP came close in Warrington and won Crosby and Glasgow Hillhead.^[29] At the 1983 general election, the Liberals gained five additional seats although the SDP lost many that they had previously inherited from Labour.^[30] After the 1983 election, Owen replaced Jenkins as head of the SDP.^[31] Several gains were made in subsequent by-elections: the SDP won in Portsmouth South and Greenwich and the Liberals in Brecon and Radnor and Ryedale.^[32]

Foundation and early years (1987–1992)

Both parties lost seats in the 1987 general election.^[33] In the wake of this, Steel called for the SDP and Liberals to merge into a single party.^[34] At the grassroots, various local constituency groups had already de facto merged.^[35] In the SDP, Jenkins, Rodgers, Williams, and the MP Charles Kennedy supported the idea; Owen and the MPs Rosie Barnes and John Cartwright opposed it.^[36] The SDP's membership was balloted on the idea: after it produced 57.4% in favour of the merger, Owen resigned as leader, to be replaced by Bob Maclennan.^[37] A Liberal conference in September found delegates providing a landslide majority for the merger.^[38] Formal negotiations launched that month and in December it produced a draft constitution for the new party.^[39] In 1988, Liberal and SDP meetings both produced majorities for the merger;^[40] finally, the memberships of both parties were balloted and both produced support for unification.^[41] Those in both parties opposed to unification split to form their own breakaway groups, in the form of the Liberal Party and the Continuing SDP.^[42]

The Social and Liberal Democrats were formally launched on 3 March 1988.^[43] Steel and Maclennan initially became joint interim leaders.^[44] At the start, it claimed 19 MPs, 3,500 local councillors, and 100,000 members.^[43] In its first leadership election, Paddy Ashdown defeated Alan Beith.^[45] Ashdown saw the Liberal Democrats as a radical, reforming force, putting forward policies for introducing home rule for Scotland and Wales, proportional representation, transforming the House of Lords into an elected Senate, and advancing environmental protections.^[46] At the September 1988 conference it adopted the short form name "the Democrats" and in October 1989 changed its name to "Liberal Democrats".^[47]^[48] The bird of liberty was adopted as its logo.^[49] In 1989, its election results were poor: it lost 190 seats in the May 1989 local elections and secured only 6.4% of the vote in the 1989 European Parliament elections, beaten to third position by the Green Party.^[50] This was the worst election result for an established third party since the 1950s.^[51] Its prospects were buoyed after it won the 1990 Eastbourne by-election, followed by-election victories in Ribble Valley and Kincardine and Deeside.^[52] In the 1991 local elections it secured a net gain of 520 seats.^[53] In the 1992 general election, it secured 17.8% of the vote and 20 seats in the House of Commons: nine of these were in Scotland and five were in Southwest England.^[54]

Consolidation and growth (1992–1999)

Between 1992 and 1997, the party underwent a period of consolidation, particularly on local councils.^[55] In the 1994 local elections, it came second, pushing the Conservatives into third place.^[56] In the 1994 European Parliament elections, it gained two Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).^[55] In 1993, the party was damaged by allegations of racism on the Liberal Democrat-controlled council in Tower Hamlets;^[56] it faced additional problems as its distinctive centrist niche was threatened by the rise of Tony Blair and New Labour, a project which pushed Labour to the centre.^[57] At the 1997 general election, it fielded 639 candidates,^[58] securing 46 MPs, the greatest number that the Liberals had had since 1929.^[59] These were concentrated in Southwest England, Southwest London, and areas of Scotland.^[59]

Although Blair's Labour won a landslide victory in 1997 and did not require a coalition government, Blair was interested in cooperation with the Lib Dems. In July 1997, he invited Ashdown and other senior Lib Dems to join a Cabinet Committee on constitutional affairs.^[60]^[61] Privately, Blair offered the Liberal Democrats a coalition but later backed down amid fears that it would split his own Cabinet.^[62] The joint Committee launched the Independent Commission on the Voting System in December;^[63] its report, published in October 1998, proposed the change from the first past the post electoral system to an alternative vote top-up system. This was not the Lib Dems preferred option—they wanted full proportional representation—although Ashdown hailed it as "a historic step forward".^[64] Many Lib Dems were concerned by Ashdown's growing closeness with Labour;^[65] aware of this, he stepped down as party leader in 1999.^[66] Before he did so, the party took part in the 1999 elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. In both, the Lib Dems came fourth and became Labour's junior coalition partners.^[67]

Charles Kennedy and Menzies Campbell (1999–2007)

The MP Simon Hughes was initially seen as Ashdown's most likely successor, but was defeated in the contest by Charles Kennedy.^[68] To reduce the impact of more leftist members who tended to dominate at conferences, Kennedy proposed that all members—rather than just conference delegates—should vote for the party's federal executive and federal policy committees.^[69] In 2001, Kennedy suspended the Joint Cabinet Committee with Labour.^[70] The media characterised him as "Inaction Man" and accused him of lacking a clear identity and political purpose;^[71] later criticism also focused on his alcoholism.^[72]^[73] In the 2001 general election, the party fielded 639 candidates and made a net gain of 6, bringing its total of seats to 52.^[74]^[75]

Following the September 11 attacks in the United States and the launch of the U.S.-led War on terror, the Liberal Democrat MPs backed the government's decision to participate in the United States invasion of Afghanistan.^[76] The party was more critical of Blair's decision to participate in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003; Kennedy joined the large anti-war march in London.^[77] With the Conservatives backing the Labour government's decision to go to war, the Lib Dems were the only major party opposing it.^[77] In following years, Lib Dem MPs increasingly voted against the Labour government on a range of issues.^[78] Much of this Lib Dem opposition to the government came from their members in the House of Lords.^[78] In the 2003 local elections, the party secured about 30% of the vote, its highest ever result.^[79]

In 2004, The Orange Book anthology was published. Written largely by centre-right economists in the party, it sparked discussions about Liberal Democrat philosophy and brought criticism from the party's social-liberal wing.^[80] In the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems secured 62 seats, the most the Liberals had had since 1923.^[81]^[82] Kennedy however faced growing calls within the party to resign after admitting that he had been treated for alcoholism; in January 2006 he stepped down under pressure even though his admission wasn't damaging to the Lib Dems' public support.^[83] In retrospect the move to oust Kennedy was seen as a "graceless" move and a turning point for the Lib Dems, who after 2010 would lose many of the left-leaning voters that Kennedy won over from Labour in 2005, "reeling in disgust from the decision to go into coalition" with the Conservatives (which Kennedy staunchly opposed).^[84]

In March 2006, Menzies Campbell succeeded Kennedy as party leader.^[85] Campbell was not popular with voters and faced a resurgent Conservative Party under new leader David Cameron;^[86] in the May 2007 local elections, the party experienced a net loss of nearly 250 seats.^[87] In that year's Scottish Parliament election, the Scottish National Party (SNP) secured the largest vote and the Lib Dem/Labour coalition ended.^[88] Campbell was frustrated at the constant media focus on the fact that he was in his late sixties; in October he resigned and Vince Cable became acting leader.^[89]^[90]

Nick Clegg and coalition with the Conservatives (2007–2015)

In December 2007, Nick Clegg narrowly beat Chris Huhne to take the party's leadership.^[91]^[92] Clegg's reshuffle of the leadership team was seen by many as a shift to the right;^[93] under Clegg, the party moved away from the social democratic focus it displayed previously.^[94] It rebranded itself as a party that would cut rather than raise taxes and dropped its hard pro-EU position.^[95] In the 2008 local elections it gained 34 seats, beating Labour in terms of vote share.^[94] The following year, the party was damaged by the expenses scandal as several Lib Dem MPs and peers were found to have misused their expenses; Campbell for example was revealed to have claimed nearly £10,000 in expenses for luxury home furnishings.^[96] In the build-up to the 2010 general election, Clegg took part in the UK's first televised party leaders debate; he was generally considered to have performed well, with pundits referring to an ensuing "Cleggmania".^[97]

In the election, the Lib Dems secured 23% of the vote and 57 seats; the Conservatives were the largest party but lacked a majority.^[98] The Conservatives and Lib Dems formed a coalition government,^[99] with Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister.^[100] Four other Lib Dems—Cable, Huhne, Danny Alexander, and David Laws—entered the coalition Cabinet.^[101] Of the 57 Liberal Democrat MPs, only two refused to support the Conservative Coalition agreement, with former party leader Charles Kennedy and Manchester Withington MP John Leech both rebelling against.^[102] Many Lib Dems opposed the move, with some favouring a coalition deal with Labour.^[103] As part of the coalition agreement, the Conservatives agreed to Lib Dem demands to introduce elected health boards, put forward a Fixed Term Parliament Bill, and end income tax for those earning less than £10,000 a year. The Conservatives also agreed to shelve their plans to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 with a proposed British Bill of Rights.^[104] The Conservatives refused to agree to Lib Dem demands for a referendum on proportional representation, instead offering a referendum on a switch from first-past-the-post to the Alternative Vote system.^[104] The coalition introduced an emergency budget to attack the fiscal deficit.^[105]

After joining the coalition poll ratings for the party fell,^[106] particularly following the government's support for raising the cap on tuition fees with Liberal Democrat MPs voting 27 for, 21 against and eight abstaining.^[107] The Liberal Democrats had made opposing tuition fees a major message of their campaign, with all of the party's MPs, including Nick Clegg, signing the Vote for Students pledge to oppose any increase in student tuition fees prior to the 2010 general election.^[108] In November 2010, The Guardian accessed internal party documents on the subject written prior to the election. These revealed that the party had planned to abandon the tuition fee policy after the election had taken place, as part of any hypothetical coalition agreement with either major party.^[109] Clegg later made a formal apology for breaking this promise in September 2012.^[110]^[111] Shortly after the 2015 general election, Liberal Democrat leadership contender Norman Lamb conceded that Clegg's broken pledge on university tuition had proven costly.^[112]

In the May 2011 local elections and the elections for the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament, the Liberal Democrats suffered heavy defeats.^[113] Clegg admitted that the party had taken "big knocks" due to a perception that the coalition government had returned to the Thatcherism of the 1980s.^[114]

As part of the deal that formed the coalition, it was agreed to hold a referendum on the Alternative Vote, in which the Conservatives would campaign for First Past the Post and the Liberal Democrats for Alternative Vote. The referendum, held on 5 May 2011, resulted in First Past the Post being chosen over Alternative Vote by approximately two-thirds of voters.^[115] In May 2011, Clegg revealed plans to make the House of Lords a mainly elected chamber, limiting the number of peers to 300, 80% of whom would be elected with a third of that 80% being elected every five years by single transferable vote.^[116] In August 2012, Clegg announced that attempts to reform the House of Lords would be abandoned due to opposition for the proposals by backbench Conservative MPs. Claiming the coalition agreement had been broken, Clegg stated that Liberal Democrat MPs would no longer support changes to the House of Commons boundaries for the 2015 general election.^[117] The Lib Dem Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne in 2011 announced plans for halving UK carbon emissions by 2025 as part of the "Green Deal" which was in the 2010 Liberal Democrat manifesto.^[118]

The Lib Dems lost over 300 councillors in the 2012 local elections, leaving them with fewer than 3,000 for the first time in the party's history.^[119] In June 2012, it was reported that membership of the party had fallen by around 20% since joining the coalition.^[120]

In February 2013, the party won a by-election in Eastleigh, the Hampshire constituency that had previously been held by the former minister, Chris Huhne. The party's candidate, Mike Thornton, had been a local councillor for the party, and held the seat.^[121] In eighteen other by-elections held throughout the 2010 to 2015 Parliament, the party lost its deposit in 11;^[122] in the Rochester and Strood by-election held on 20 November 2014, it came fifth polling 349 votes or 0.9% of the total votes cast, the worst result in the history of the party.^[123]

In the 2013 local elections, the Liberal Democrats lost over 100 council seats. In the 2014 local elections, they lost another 307 council seats^[124] and ten of their eleven seats in the European Parliament in the 2014 European elections.^[125]

In the 2015 general election, the party lost 48 seats in the House of Commons, leaving them with only eight MPs.^[126]^[127] Prominent Liberal Democrat MPs who lost their seats included former leader Charles Kennedy, former deputy leaders Vince Cable and Simon Hughes, and several cabinet ministers. The Conservatives won an outright majority.^[128] Clegg then announced his resignation as party leader.^[129] The party lost over 400 council seats in the 2015 local elections, held the same day.^[130]

Collapse and opposing Brexit (2015–2019)

After the coalition government, the Lib Dems were led by Tim Farron (2015–2017), Vince Cable (2017–2019) and Jo Swinson (2019)

Membership of the Liberal Democrats rose from 45,000 to 61,000^[131] as the party prepared to hold its 2015 party leadership ballot. On 16 July 2015, Tim Farron was elected to the leadership of the party with 56.5% of the vote, beating opponent Norman Lamb.^[132] In the May 2016 local elections, the Liberal Democrats gained a small number of council seats, though they lost ground in the Welsh Assembly. The party campaigned for a Remain vote in the referendum on United Kingdom membership of the European Union in June 2016.^[133] After the Leave vote, the Liberal Democrats sought to mobilise the 48% who voted Remain,^[134] and the party's membership rose again, reaching 80,000 by September.^[135]

The 2017 local election results saw a loss of about 40 council seats. In the 2017 general election, during which the party advocated continued membership of the European single market and a referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement,^[136] the Liberal Democrats' vote share dropped 0.5% to 7.4%, its lowest percentage ever, but produced a net gain of four seats.^[137] Farron then resigned;^[138] in July 2017 Vince Cable was elected leader unopposed.^[139] He called for a second referendum on the UK's relationship with the European Union.^[140] In December 2018, the MP for Eastbourne, Stephen Lloyd, resigned the Liberal Democrat Whip, saying that his party's position on Brexit was inconsistent with his pledge to his constituency that he would "respect the result" of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.^[141] Although Lloyd remained a Liberal Democrat member, this took the number of sitting Liberal Democrat MPs down to 11.

The party gained 76 councillors in the 2018 local elections and 704 councillors in the 2019 local elections.^[142] In the 2019 European Parliament election the party ran with an anti-Brexit message seeking the support of those who wish the UK to remain in the EU, using the slogan "Bollocks to Brexit" which attracted considerable media attention.^[143]^[144] In that election, the party gained 20% of the popular vote and returned 16 MEPs.^[145] In May, Cable stood down as leader, triggering a leadership election.^[146]

Between June and October 2019, the total number of MPs rose from 11 to 21, following eight defections from other parties, one by-election win, and Lloyd retaking the whip. The defections were mainly former MPs of Change UK, with Chuka Umunna^[147] and Sarah Wollaston^[148] joining directly from the party, whereas Heidi Allen, Luciana Berger, and Angela Smith joined after subsequently being part of The Independents. The remaining defectors were three of the 21 rebel Conservative MPs who had the whip withdrawn for voting against the government on a piece of legislation which would prevent a no-deal scenario on 31 October 2019: Antoinette Sandbach, Sam Gyimah, and Phillip Lee. The latter physically crossed the floor during the debate on the legislation, effectively removing the majority of the first Johnson government.^[149]

Heading into the 2019 general election, the party polled well, with one poll showing the party with 20% (within 4% of Labour) as late as 28 October.^[150] Nonetheless, during the campaign period the party's fortunes dwindled, and leader Jo Swinson received negative reviews.^[151]^[152] In the election, the Liberal Democrats lost ten seats from the previous parliament and one from the previous election, returning 11 MPs. Of the nine new MPs who joined between June and October 2019, the eight who contested their seats in the 2019 general election all lost their seats. However, the party did gain 4.2% in the vote, rising to 11.6%. Swinson herself narrowly lost her East Dunbartonshire constituency to the Scottish National Party's Amy Callaghan, forcing her to resign as leader the next day in accordance with the Liberal Democrat Constitution which mandates that the leader must also serve as an MP.^[153] Deputy Leader Ed Davey and Party President Sal Brinton then jointly assumed the positions of acting co-leaders of the party. Brinton was at the end of the year (31 December 2019) replaced by Mark Pack as Party President and acting co-leader^[154] while Mike Dixon remains the party CEO.^[155]

Revival under Ed Davey (2020–present)

The Liberal Democrats' federal board set out a timetable in January 2020 which stated that a new party leader would be elected in July 2020.^[156] Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom in the late winter and spring which saw many politicians infected, the party's board initially pushed the leadership election back to May 2021.^[157] The decision was reversed in May 2020 to hold the leadership election in July 2020.^[158] On 27 August 2020, Ed Davey was elected as leader of the party, by a margin of almost 18,000 votes.^[159] On 13 September 2020, Daisy Cooper was announced as the party's new Deputy Leader.^[160]

In September 2020, it was revealed by the party's new campaigning chief that the Liberal Democrats had started planning a four-year drive to woo "soft conservatives". Cooper said the party could find a route forward by appealing to voters that had always thought of themselves as conservatives but who opposed the current direction of the Conservative Party under Boris Johnson.^[161]

When Davey was asked by Andrew Marr about the party's stance on rejoining the EU, he said "We are not a rejoin party, but we are a very pro-European party." This caused anger to some Liberal Democrat members and a few days after Davey wrote a blog post clarifying his position. He stressed the Liberal Democrats were "committed to the UK being members of the European Union again" and insisted that members may have "misinterpreted" what he said on The Andrew Marr Show and that once he was able to clarify "people were completely relaxed".^[162]

Under Davey, the Liberal Democrats seized the traditional Conservative constituency of Chesham and Amersham in a by-election in which Sarah Green overturned a 16,000 majority in June 2021^[163] and then repeated a similar feat in North Shropshire in December 2021 when Helen Morgan overturned a 23,000 majority.^[164] In the 2022 local elections, the Liberal Democrats gained councillors in all countries of Great Britain, with the largest gain of any party in England with 194 new councillors.^[165] One month later, the Liberal Democrats contested and won the Tiverton and Honiton by-election with its candidate Richard Foord, overturning a majority of over 24,000 and breaking the record for the biggest overturning of a majority in British by-election history.^[166]

The Liberal Democrats saw considerable gains in the 2023 local elections, gaining 405 councillors and winning control of 12 more councils.^[167] They also overturned a 19,000 Conservative majority in the 2023 Somerton and Frome by-election to elect Sarah Dyke as their 15th MP.^[168]

In the 2024 local elections, Davey said he was confident of toppling the "Tory Blue Wall in Surrey".^[169] The Lib Dems finished in second place behind Labour and ahead of the Conservatives in terms of seats. The Liberal Democrats gained Tunbridge Wells council^[170] and Dorset Council.^[171] They notably added more council seats than any other party over the last parliament, gaining more than 750 in the last five years, largely in southern England.^[172]

The Liberal Democrats entered the 2024 general election with its manifesto policies including reforming Carer's Allowance, free personal care in England, votes at 16 and proportional representation.^[173]^[174] After a successful campaign, the party made the biggest gain in seats in its history, winning a party high of 72 seats.^[175]^[176]