The Federal Board is the governing body of the Liberal Democrats. It is chaired by the party president, currently

Mark Pack Mark Anthony Pack, Baron Pack (born 27 July 1970) is a British politician who has served as the president of the Liberal Democrats since 1 January 2020. After the party's leader, Jo Swinson, lost her seat in the 2019 United Kingdom general elec ...

, and includes members of the party-at-large elected every three years in an all-member ballot, as well as representatives from the state parties, MPs, peers, MEPs, and councillors. Until 2017 it was known as the Federal Executive. From November 2022, it was re-constituted, with a Federal Council added to provide scrutiny to a smaller sized board.

History

In November 2015, the election of Lord Rennard by members of the House of Lords as the Peer Representative to the committee caused a "backlash" from party members, due to public accusations of sexual harassment that had been made against the peer. The complaints triggered a petition calling for a special conference to debate the issue, and resulted in Rennard stepping down from the body shortly afterwards. In November 2016, reforms were passed that resulted in the Federal Executive being replaced by the Federal Board. Following constitutional reforms ahead of the 2022 election, the number of directly elected members was reduced from 15, to 3. Following the 2022 election, Lucy Nethsinga came first out of the directly elected members, followed by Neil Fawcett and then Joyce Onstad. Following her resignation from the party, Onstad was replaced by Callum Robertson who won the recounted vote.

Members of the Federal Board

* Chair:

* English Party Chair:

Caroline Pidgeon Caroline Valerie Pidgeon, Baroness Pidgeon, (born 29 September 1972), is a British politician. She served as the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the London Assembly from 2010 to 2024, and was a member of the London Assembly (AM) from 2008 ...

* Scottish Party Convenor: Jenni Laing * Welsh Party Chair: Tim Sly *

Leader Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

Ed Davey Sir Edward Jonathan Davey (born 25 December 1965) is a British politician who has served as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, leader of the Liberal Democrat party since 2020. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State ...

* Chair of FFRC and Registered Treasurer: Mike Cox * Chair of FPDC: Claire Hudson * Vice-chair of FPC: Jeremy Hargreaves * Chair of FCC: Nicholas Da Costa * Chair of FCEC: Kath Pinnock * Chair of FASC: Helena Cole * Vice-president: Amna Ahmad * Councillor representative: Chris White * Young Liberals Representative: Harvey Jones Directly Elected: *

Lucy Nethsingha Lucy Kathleen Nethsingha (née Sellwood; born 6 February 1973) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has served as Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council since 2021, and leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council since 2015. S ...

(Cambridge) * Neil Fawcett (Oxford West & Abingdon) * Callum Robertson (Watford) Non-voting Members * Chief Executive: Mike Dixon

Federal Council

The Federal Council was formed following the reduction of the size of the Federal Board in 2022. According to the Liberal Democrats, the Federal Council scrutinises the actions of the Federal Board

Federal Council seat allocation

As of 2024, membership of the Federal Council is allocated as such: * 21 party members (elected by party members) * 3 members from each State Party (elected according to each State Party's processes) * 3 principal local authority councillors, elected Mayors or Police and Crime Commissioners (elected by their numbers) * 3 members of the Young Liberals, (elected according to the Young Liberals processes) * 3 representatives of the Parliamentary Liberal Democrats * The Chair of the Federal Audit and Scrutiny Committee

Members of the Federal Council

The current members of the Federal Council are * Chair of Federal Council: Antony Hook * FASC Chair: Dr David Radcliffe Directly elected party members: State party representatives: Parliamentary representatives: *

Richard Foord Richard John Foord (; born 13 February 1978) is a British Liberal Democrat politician and former British Army officer who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Honiton and Sidmouth, previously Tiverton and Honiton, since 2022. Early l ...

MP * Lord

Paul Strasburger Paul Cline Strasburger, Baron Strasburger (born 31 July 1946) is a British Liberal Democrat politician, millionaire philanthropist and semi-retired businessman. Involvement with the Liberal Democrats Strasburger first became involved in the Lib ...

* Lord

Timothy Clement-Jones Timothy Francis Clement-Jones, Baron Clement-Jones, (born 26October 1949) is a Liberal Democrat peer and spokesman for the digital economy in the House of Lords. Career Clement-Jones is a consultant of the multinational law firm DLA Pip ...

Young Liberals representatives: * Archie McCann * Huw James * Oliver Jones Lyon

References