The Liberal Democrat headquarters is the principal centre of operations and offices of the British Liberal Democrats. As of January 2023, the current headquarters of the party are located at 1 Vincent Square, SW1P 3AE in London. [1]
From its formation in 1988, the Liberal Democrats were based in 4 Cowley Street, a Grade II listed Edwardian mansion built in 1905. [2] The party signed a new lease on the building in 2000. Prior to the Liberal Democrats occupying the building, it had been the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party since 1981, and before that had also been the London and North Eastern Railway headquarters. [2] [3]
In March 2011, the party announced they were planning to vacate Cowley Street. At the time, the party had been reducing staff numbers after entering government due to the loss of Short Money, though it denied that the move had been forced due to poor finances, stating that "more modern and more appropriate buildings" were needed and that "Cowley Street does not meet the staff numbers we have got." [3]
The headquarters relocated to an office on a single floor of 8-10 Great George Street, Westminster in May 2011, close to Parliament Square. The Independent described the office as "minimalist" compared to the previous Cowley Street "rabbit warren", and compared it to offices seen in political comedy The Thick of It . The party intended for the open plan design to facilitate better communications. [4] The building was first built in the 1930s with an 1800s Beaux-Arts exterior. [5]
In October 2019, Westminster City Council gave planning permission for 8-10 Great George Street, which was still occupied by the Liberal Democrats at the time, to be converted into a 134-bed hotel. [5]
The federal party HQ moved to a single floor of 1 Vincent Square in 2021. The office space is also used by the English Liberal Democrats. The Scottish Lib Dems and Welsh Lib Dems have their own registered headquarter offices.
Millbank Tower is a 119-metre-high (390 ft) skyscraper in the City of Westminster at Millbank, by the River Thames in London, England. The tower was constructed in 1963, and has been home to many high-profile political organisations, including the Labour and Conservative parties, and the United Nations.
Smith Square is a square in Westminster, London, 250 metres south-southwest of the Palace of Westminster. Most of its garden interior is filled by St John's, Smith Square, a Baroque surplus church, the inside of which has been converted to a concert hall. Most adjoining buildings are offices, with the focus on organisations lobbying or serving the government. In the mid-20th century, the square hosted the headquarters of the two largest parties of British politics, and it is now hosts much of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Local Government Association. It has a pedestrian or mixed approach to the four sides and another approach to the north.
Sir John Vincent Cable is a British politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Twickenham from 1997 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019. He also served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2010 to 2015.
Sir Edward Jonathan Davey is a British politician who has been the leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020, having acted in the position from 2019 to 2020. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 to 2015 and as deputy leader to Jo Swinson in 2019. An "Orange Book" liberal, Davey has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston and Surbiton since 2017, previously holding the seat from 1997 to 2015.
Teignbridge is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Newton Abbot. The district also includes the towns of Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Dawlish, Kingsteignton and Teignmouth, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas. Teignbridge contains part of the south Devon coastline, including the Dawlish Warren National Nature Reserve. Some of the inland western parts of the district lie within the Dartmoor National Park. It is named after the old Teignbridge hundred.
In British politics, a Lib–Lab pact is a working arrangement between the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party.
Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg is a British retired politician and media executive who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2005 to 2017. An "Orange Book" liberal, he has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies.
Oxford East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Anneliese Dodds of the Labour Party, who also serves as party chair.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, part of UK Liberal Democrats. The party holds 4 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 6 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons.
Hugh O'Donnell is a former Scottish politician.
Rutland County Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. Since 1997 the council has been a unitary authority, legally being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council.
The 2007 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held following the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell as leader on 15 October 2007, after 19 months as leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom. Vince Cable, the deputy leader of the parliamentary party, was acting leader until the conclusion of the leadership election. The result was announced on 18 December 2007 with Nick Clegg winning by a narrow margin of 1.2%.
399 Park Avenue is a 41-story office building that occupies the entire block between Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street and 54th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was the world headquarters of Citigroup from 1961, when it moved from 55 Wall Street, until 2015, when the company moved to 388 Greenwich Street.
The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1988. The current leader of the party is Ed Davey. They are the third-largest party in the United Kingdom, with 72 members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons. They have 78 members of the House of Lords, four members of the Scottish Parliament, one member in the Welsh Senedd, and more than 3,000 local council seats. The party holds a twice-per-year Liberal Democrat Conference, at which party policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents' rules, the Liberal Democrats grant all members attending its Conference the right to vote on party policy, under a one member, one vote system. The party also allows its members to vote online for its policies and in the election of a new leader.
St. Ermin's Hotel is a four-star central London hotel adjacent to St James's Park Underground station, close to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament. The Grade II-listed late Victorian building, built as one of the early mansion blocks in the English capital, is thought to be named after an ancient monastery reputed to have occupied the site pre-10th century. Converted to a hotel in 1896–1899, it became during the 1930s, through the Second World War and beyond, a meeting place of the British intelligence services, notably the birthplace of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and where notorious Cambridge Five double agents Philby and MacLean met their Russian handlers. St Ermin's is now part of Marriott Hotels' Autograph Collection. The hotel is owned by the family of Tei-Fu Chen, founder of Sunrider International.
Christopher Francis Fox, Baron Fox, is a British Liberal Democrat politician.
The London Liberal Democrats are the regional party of the Liberal Democrats that operates in Greater London. The organisation is a part of the English Liberal Democrats.
4 Cowley Street is a Grade II listed house in Westminster, London SW1. Previously the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Democrats, it is now a residential building.
Great George Street is a street in Westminster, London, leading from Parliament Square to Birdcage Walk. The area of the current street was occupied by a number of small roads and yards housing inns and tenements. In the 1750s these were demolished and Great George Street laid out with "houses only as are fit for the habitation of persons of fortune and distinction". Part of the street was demolished in 1806 and is now part of Parliament Square. Between 1898 and 1915 the entire north side of the street was demolished for the construction of the Government Offices Great George Street. The street houses the headquarters of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, whose building includes the only surviving 1750s façade, and the Institution of Civil Engineers. The street formerly housed the National Portrait Gallery.
The Labour Party headquarters, often referred to as Labour HQ, is the principal centre of operations and offices of the British Labour Party. The current headquarters are located in the Southworks building on Rushworth Street in Southwark. "Labour HQ" is also used by the news media to refer to those deemed in charge of the party.