Thank you all so much.

I am delighted, honoured, absolutely over the moon to stand before you as the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

And as the first woman to lead our party.

I am delighted, honoured, absolutely over the moon to stand before you as the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

I joined this party when I was 17. And over the last twenty-two years, through all the ups and downs, the Liberal Democrats have felt like a family to me.

Party members - check your inboxes!

Ballots for our leadership election have now gone out. If you were a member by the 7th June, you get a say in deciding the next leader of our party.

It's a really exciting time to be a Liberal Democrat - and we're extraordinarily lucky to have 2 solid candidates in Sir Ed Davey and Jo Swinson. Either would be a fabulous leader for our party.

We've had an exception two months, winning elections, breaking records and growing our movement. Get the low down here:

Local Elections

We saw our party's best ever local election results, taking control of twelve councils and winning 706 council seats across England.

We took control of Vale of the White Horse, Hinckley & Bosworth, North Norfolk, Winchester, Bath and North East Somerset, Cotswolds, Chelmsford North Devon, Mole Valley, North Devon, Somerset West & Taunton and Teignbridge Councils.

Residents and Councillors in the west of the County have expressed anger and concern at the news that South Shropshire Housing Association is selling off another property in Bucknell rather return it to the rental market.

Shropshire Councillor for Clun, Nigel Hartin, said: " I am really concerned about the Housing Association's strategy in rural Shropshire. Over the last couple of years we have seen the housing association try to sell off houses in Lydham and St Catherine's flats in Clun. The Housing Association have also seriously let down local residents in regard to the four properties at Amblecote (between Betws y Crwyn and Anchor) where they have decided to auction the properties despite apparently agreeing with the parish to sell to local people.

At the 2019 European Elections Phil Bennion was elected for the Liberal Democrats in the West Midlands and secured 6,255 votes in Rugby (24.2% of the vote) beating Labour and the Conservatives.

The West Midlands constituency has seven MEPs representing Herfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and the West Midlands metropolitan area.

Chris Bartrum stood for the Liberal Democrats and is now the councillor - congratulations! He ran up a huge 31% swing from the Conservatives:

Heather Kidd, Lib Dem Councillor for Chirbury and Worthen, was interviewed today by BBC TV for their Midlands Today Programme and Radio Shropshire about the cuts to bus services threatened by Conservative run Shropshire Council.

Heather said"We have seen our rural bus network seriously pared back over the years. Further cuts would severely impair the ability some of the most vulnerable in society to access key services such as health care in our towns".