Campaigns

Edward's Campaign

The general election on July 4th is a chance to vote for real change. The Conservatives are finished, both nationally and here in the Cities of London and Westminster, where they are now in third place. Their MP Nickie Aiken stood down. We are going to get a Labour government with a huge majority — but voters here have a chance to make a difference by choosing a strong, independent voice to represent them in Parliament,

Edward has lived under dictatorship. So he is determined to save our democracy.

That is why he is fighting to bring trust and integrity back into politics. The two big parties swap slogans, but they don’t talk about the real problems facing this country. We are poorer than we think, less safe and less free. We face huge, wrenching changes in an increasingly dangerous world. But our political system is weakened by sleaze and scandal.

As a journalist, author and campaigner, Edward Lucas has spent his career fighting for truth and justice, exposing wrongdoing and holding the powerful to account. He’s not a professional politician — he gave up his job to work full-time on stopping the tide of dirty money that taints our decision-making.

“I don’t want this country to be run by the dodgy rich, for the dodgy rich,” he says.

It starts with Brexit. That’s hurt our: trade, investment, productivity, growth, jobs, wages and prices. We can’t rejoin the European Union soon, but we can stop digging the hole deeper. Only the Liberal Democrats have a clear plan to bring Britain back to the heart of Europe where it belongs. We must bin the rules that make life worse for everyone and start rebuilding trust and cooperation.

Other wins by Edward

  • He won an apology from the Metropolitan Police for their mistreatment of a pro-democracy demonstrator.
  • He arranged for BT to remove a phone box being used by sex-traffickers to harass women in a homelessness shelter.

Edward has been campaigning for you week-in, week-out since September 2021, longer than any of the other candidates. He has a record of action on local, national and international issues. He’s a best-selling author and prize-winning journalist. He’s got a record of getting things done dating back to the 1970s.

Edward’s a lifelong campaigner for Britain in Europe. He speaks many European languages (“around ten” he says). 

We also face a climate emergency. We need action now to save energy, in our buildings, in the food system, in waste management and in transport. Nobody’s going to praise us for keeping conservation-area aesthetics when the sea levels rise and our streets are under water. We need action now on clean air and water. Polluters should pay for the damage they do. Thames Water has failed us. Shareholders and bondholders should lose their money and the bosses deserve the sack. Lib Dems have been campaigning for years to hold water companies to account.

Edward campaigns hard on local issues such as noise, mess and safety that come up in our daily door-knocking.

E-bikes, for example, are a great idea. But they must work for everyone. Edward has made the operators – big companies like Lime Bike — tidy up messy parking bays. He got the police to make spot-checks on rogue cyclists who jump red lights.

Disability is a big issue for Edward. He wants disabled people to be heard by those in power, on accessibility, education and employment.

Covent Garden's street performers have been bringing laughter and joy to this unique London venue for centuries. The killjoy Labour-run Westminster Council wants to bring their self-regulated performances under its bureaucratic busking regime. Edward Lucas took up their cause, fought the council and won.

Edward also exposed the Conservatives’ sinister secret blacklists. Experts—such as the Pimlico-based chemical weapons expert Dan Kaszeta — were banned from meetings if they’d criticised government policy. Edward highlighted the issue in his Times column, raised it on BBC Newsnight, got questions asked in Parliament, started fundraising to sue the government — and forced a climbdown and an apology.

Edward Lucas gets Labour to backdown on its Covent Garden crackdown

Covent Garden's street performers have been bringing laughter and joy to this unique part of Westminster for centuries. They have their own self-regulated code, which has worked well for years. However, last year the killjoy Labour-run Westminster council tried to launch an unnecessary crackdown, attempting to impose its own draconian busking rules on the Piazza's street acts. Here's the story of how Edward Lucas took up their cause, fought the council and won.

As your MP, Edward will bring a new integrity to Parliament

A New Integrity

 

Our public life is plagued by sleaze and scandal. As a journalist, author and campaigner, Edward Lucas has spent his career exposing wrongdoing and holding the powerful to account. He’s not a professional politician — he gave up his job to work full-time on stopping the tide of dirty money that taints our decision-making.

“I don’t want this country to be run by the dodgy rich, for the dodgy rich,” he says.

As your MP, Edward will bring a new integrity to Parliament

A New Energy

Clean energy not only supports the safety of our climate, but the air we breathe in our cities and the health of our children.

Green energy will help us save the planet from climate change. It safeguards our health and clean up the air we breathe. We need to speed up the changes, with more electric vehicles, more help on heat pumps and insulation for our homes, and a greener city.

Edward Lucas was the energy editor of The Economist, Britain’s top newsweekly. He knows the challenges we face, and the solutions that are at hand if we have the willpower to grasp them.He’s fighting to get Westminster Council to take the climate emergency seriously — for example by easing the nit-picking rules that stop us installing modern, energy-efficient windows.

“Our children won’t thank us for preserving conservation area aesthetics if we’ve cooked the planet,” he says.

Edward will bring a new energy to our green transformation

A New Security

We are only as safe as the streets we walk down and the protection we have at our borders and beyond.

From police incompetence at home and government complacency abroad, our security is in danger. Edward Lucas has decades of experience in exposing threats and in defending our values and our freedom. He’s an international security expert, author and adviser to governments and lawmakers. He’s repeatedly been prescient and effective, on cyber-scams and the threat from Putin’s Russia.

Whether he’s highlighting failures in defence and intelligence, or the woeful inefficiency of our cash-strapped, ill-run criminal justice system, Edward’s on your side.

Edward will bring a new security to our communities and our country.

A New Voice

Too many voices go unheard in a system where money talks and cronies do deals behind the scenes. Edward Lucas stands up to the rich and powerful on your behalf, with a record of success. He’s won victories for tenants against abusive landlords, pushed back for consumer rights against greedy companies, and forced the government to come clean on its secret blacklists, which penalised experts for their private opinions.

As an MP, Edward will take your concerns to Parliament — and get results

Edward will bring a new voice to the corridors of power, for people who all too often go unheard.