Bexhill and Battle Liberal Democrats

Congratulations to our very own Elder Statesman, Richard Moore, recipient yesterday at Conference, of the Harriet Smith Award for long and outstanding commitment and service

This is so well deserved, and Bexhill & Battle are proud, Richard, that you are in our Local Party.

We need a bold new approach to improving mental health focused on prevention, including giving discounts to business rates for companies that take concrete steps to improve well-being in the workplace.

We also need a pay rise for NHS staff and demanded that Theresa May give EU nationals working in the NHS the right to stay now.

The IFS has demolished Boris Johnson's repeated claim that Brexit will lead to an £350m for the NHS.

In a letter to The Times, the IFS's deputy director Carl Emmerson points out that overall Brexit is actually set to damage the public finances and lead to "net fiscal loss."

This is a point made by the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast and adopted by the government.

At our conference today, the Liberal Democrats have agreed to a raft of new policies which will see stricter penalties for companies that break the law, as part of a series of measures to improve corporate governance.

This would include scrapping the need to establish intent or guilt of a senior executive in cases of corporate failure, meaning that companies themselves could be held criminally liable.

In the wake of the recent terrorist outrages it's clear that we need a bold change of strategy to defeat terrorism and counter violent extremism.

To do that, at our Autumn Conference today we have proposed a bold new strategy to defeat terror. At the heart of the strategy being proposed is proper funding and resourcing for the community police.

In surprising news today, the Head of the Deparment for Exiting the European Union, Oliver Robbins has quit to take up a new role after a series of disagreements with David Davis.

I'm glad someone has found an exit from Brexit.

Unfortunately for the government, it's the civil servant who was meant to be leading it.

According to charities, councils and housing associations, the rollout of the universal credit is a disaster in slow-motion.

A mandatory six-week wait to receive a first payment is causing people serious difficulties, with over half of new claimants having to borrow money to make ends meet. Universal Credit's policy of making claimants pay landlords

Fire safety has to be put at the forefront of new building regulations in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

That is abundantly clear - and that's why, today, the Liberal Democrats have voted to give a stronger role to the social housing regulator, and are pushing for a package of measures to improve fire safety and building regulations.

In April 2016, I wrote to the UK Statistics Authority over the Vote Leave campaign's claim £350m a week is sent to the EU.

In his reply the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Andrew Dilnot CBE, said that VoteLeave's use of the figure was "potentially misleading."

The fact that Boris Johnson continues to use it, despite having been told repeatedly that it's nonsense, means it is just not credible for him to remain in Government.

Today at our Autumn Conference the Liberal Democrats have called on the government to immediately lift the pay cap on the armed forces to address a growing recruitment crisis.

Currently, a newly trained private on £18,488 would see a £351 real-terms pay cut next year once inflation is taken into account. The Liberal Democrats would raise wages in line with inflation, meaning a newly trained private would get a pay rise of £536 up to just over £19,000.