FiLiA, “Plus”, and the Dissident Lib Dem MPs

Last weekend a group of us - Lib Dem women members - attended FiLiA, the largest feminist conference in Europe. The conference would feature talks and workshops on a broad range of pressing issues such as the global epidemic of violence against women, anti-racism campaigning and the exploitation of women in the sex and surrogacy industries. 

When we arrived we were horrified to find the Brighton Centre had been vandalised, with several large windows broken, smashed glass across the pavement, paint daubed over windows, and men with loud hailers trying to intimidate us and block our entrance. 

The men responsible wore trans flags and shouted trans activist slogans. This group, operating under the banner of ‘Bash Back’, is the same one that had previously vandalised Wes Streeting’s Constituency Office, and has promised to act again.

Streeting immediately condemned the attack, while the only prominent or official Lib Dem commentary came from LGBT+ Lib Dems - known colloquially in the party as '“Plus” - who joked on X, “We thought the Brighton Centre looked much better when the Lib Dems had our conference there a year ago”. 

Below the comment was a photo of the giant trans flag stunt the group had staged outside the same conference centre in protest at our women’s group being allowed to have an exhibition stand at Lib Dem Conference. Inside the conference centre they had also tried to galvanise an atmosphere of intolerance towards us by persuading other exhibitors to agree to display trans flags and posters on their stands. The President, Mark Pack, told the audience in the main auditorium that it was understandable that people felt “unsafe” as a result of our presence. 

The lack of explicit condemnation of the violence at FiLiA, combined with the “jolly” tone of the comment, and the context of the reference - namely the active suppression of women’s voices within the Lib Dems - meant the comment struck a tone of minimisation at best, and gloating at worst. 

It was sickening to read, especially for those of us who’d experienced both conferences and suffered manifestations of trans activists’ hostility towards women at both. 

Hearteningly, some of our MPs, namely Paul Kohler, Sarah Dyke and Andrew George decided to publicly distance themselves from this ill-judged statement. Their intervention  came too late to prevent Plus’ statement being picked up by the Press. 

Naturally, Plus then proceeded to try to make excuses for their comment rather than apologise for it, arguing they didn’t really mean to make a joke about the attack on the feminist conference, and that “it should go without saying” that they condemned the violence. They also complained that the MPs didn’t speak to them privately instead of commenting in public. But this is not how politics works. MPs aren’t obliged to protect party factions, especially when they behave in ways that bring the party into disrepute.

The fact that several MPs have finally had the courage to call out Plus tells us we have crossed a threshold in the party. Blind obeisance to our radical trans activist wing is no longer a given.

The reality is the Plus comment on the criminal damage to the conference centre tells us all we already know: if you obediently wrap your conference centre in a trans flag you won’t get your windows smashed.

The same goes for others: 

If you - internal party organisations - display the trans flag on your stands we won’t attack you.

If you - politicians - comply with our demands we won’t report you to the Chief Whip or call for your deselection. 

But now the spell has been broken. This kind of extortion no longer works and MPs are no longer willing to comply. Like Wes Streeting, some of them have understood that the way to deal with terrorists and tyrants is to stand up to them. 

Plus has exerted too much power in the party for far too long. Its extreme positions are out of touch with voters and members, and its dictatorial approach is wearing thin with an ever-growing group of liberal MPs and peers.

It’s time for a shake up, and a return to liberal norms and standards of acceptable behaviour. 

With internal elections just around the corner, there’s an opportunity to turn this around. We are standing a slate of candidates - all committed to a proper liberal future for the party and the country - for every internal election. 

This is our chance to make the Liberal Democrats worthy of our name.

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