This is the second day of the Conservative Conference in Manchester. It will be interesting if we can discover what, if any, contributions from our Sussex MPs that will come from it. It ends on Wednesday and will be closely followed by the Green Party Conference which takes place from Friday until Sunday here in Brighton. In Aberystwyth, in mid Wales, the Plaid Cymru Conference is on Friday and Saturday.

Last week the Liberal Democrat Conference went ahead over in Bournemouth. Although there are currently no Sussex Liberal Democrat MPs, in the past there were a few and indeed according to their projections there are several possible opportunities that could lead to future Sussex Liberal Democrat MPs. There are currently only fifteen Liberal Democrat MPs in the UK but they are significant across Parliament. There are no Party MPs in Wales or Northern Ireland but there are four in Scotland with the other eleven based in England. There are three in London, three in the South West and two in the South East, but both of them are in the North end of South East so there are none in our region. However at the next General Election that may change for us.

The two parts of Sussex that have included Liberal Democrat MPs in the last ten years were Lewes with Norman Baker who was the MP from 1997-2015 and in Eastbourne Stephen Lloyd was the MP from 2010-2015 and from 2017-2019. Interestingly the first piece I spotted during the Annual Conference was connected to the mid Sussex area. Alison Bennett who is currently a Councillor of the Liberal Democrat in the Mid Sussex Council representing Hurstpierpoint made some contributions and during the Conference period her comment was published

Mid Sussex is going to be a really close fight between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives at the next general election. Whilst this is only a projection, it gives hope to everyone here who wants to have a hand in showing this awful Conservative government the door. Every vote is going to count, and I will be doing all I can to build the trust and support of Mid Sussex residents.

The other statement that I noticed during the conference period came from the well known actor Steve Coogan who said

I’m not a member of the Lib Dems, and despite the beard and the fleece I generally vote Labour,” and he then said. “But where I live in Lewes, the candidate best placed to kick the Tories out is the Lib Dem candidate, so I vote for them.

Another theme during the Conference was published from several MPs who focused on FareShare on their X, formerly Twitter, accounts. One was the Bath MP Wera Hobhouse who stated

So proud of FareShare for their incredible work tackling food poverty in Bath. For those left behind by government during this cost of living crisis, services like FareShare are an absolute lifeline.

This was a very encouraging comment during their conference. It would be great if some of the Sussex MPs will refer to the work of FareShare in the other conferences as many of us would like FareShare to obtain more support from the Government. Another contribution during the session came from Sarah Waite the CEO of Get Further charity which supports education students. She was a member of the Labour party in the past.  At the conference she said

Ensuring all young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in schools and colleges can access high-quality tutoring is an essential part of the strategy to close the country’s attainment gap. With such a positive impact on confidence and skills, it is vital that tutoring policies are extended and scaled up beyond August 2024. It’s fantastic that the Liberal Democrats are announcing their commitment to embed access to tutoring for disadvantaged young people into the education system long-term.

Many other contributions came during the Conference and indeed Ed Davey who is the leader spoke several times which included this statement below. Along with him being the current Leader of the Liberal Democrat I was able to meet him many years ago when I was in the stakeholder group for the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA). A group of us met him when we were ensuring that our team would receive approval from the political clients. Ed Davey was very positive at that time and he has continued to be very effective in his role in Parliament. At the conference he said

Millions of people across the country are struggling to get a GP appointment when they need one, leaving them waiting in pain and distress. GPs should be the front door to the NHS, but that door has been slammed shut in people’s faces after years of Conservative broken promises and neglect. Far too many people are being left without the rapid care and treatment they need, piling more pressure onto our hospitals and other NHS services. Our rural communities are being particularly badly impacted by these painfully long GP waits, showing again how the Conservatives are taking them for granted. The Liberal Democrats will tackle this crisis by giving everyone the right to see a GP within a week, or 24 hours if it’s urgent. We will narrow the divide between rural and urban areas, ensuring everyone can see a GP when they need to and get the care they deserve.’