Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats

The Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats is a local party of the Liberal Democrats that operates in Northern Ireland.^[12] Unlike its counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales, the Northern Ireland party is not a state party within the federal Liberal Democrats (though there does exist constitutional provision for it to be established so by conference) but a local party similar to constituency parties in the rest of the UK.

Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats
Chair	Stephen Glenn
Founded	1988
Headquarters	Belfast
Youth wing	Young Liberals
Ideology	Liberalism[1] Social liberalism[1][2] Classical liberalism[3][4] Pro-Europeanism[5][6]
Political position	Centre[7][8] to centre-left[3][9][10]
National affiliation	Liberal Democrats
European affiliation	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliation	Liberal International
Colours	Yellow[11]
House of Commons (NI Seats)	0 / 18
House of Lords	1 / 783
NI Assembly	0 / 90
Local government	0 / 462
Website
libdemsni.wordpress.com
Politics of Northern Ireland Political parties Elections

Elections

The Liberal Democrats do not presently contest elections in Northern Ireland but there is a strong history of support to the Alliance Party.

Members

Several individuals, including former Alliance Party leader David Ford, hold membership of both the Alliance Party and the Liberal Democrats. Alliance members of the House of Lords take the Liberal Democrat whip on non-Northern Ireland issues. John Alderdice was leader of Alliance 1987–1998 and has sat as a Lib Dem peer since 1996.

Alliance Party MP Naomi Long (2010–2015) did not take the Liberal Democrat Whip in the House of Commons as she is not a Liberal Democrat member.^[13]

As of 23 January 2016, the Chair of the Northern Ireland local party is Stephen Glenn. The previous chair was John O’Neill.

See also

• Northern Ireland portal
• Liberalism portal
• Politics portal

• English Liberal Democrats
• Scottish Liberal Democrats
• Welsh Liberal Democrats