The below ALDC motion will be moved at Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference 2026 on Saturday 19 September at 17:30 in the main auditorium.
Mover: Lisa Smart MP (Spokesperson for the Cabinet Office)
Summation: Zöe Franklin MP (Spokesperson for Local Government)
Conference notes:
- The murders of Jo Cox MP and Sir David Amess MP, and the manslaughter of Cllr Andrew Pennington and attempted murder of Nigel Jones MP.
- That research shows a growing level of abuse and threats of violence towards both candidates in elections and elected officials at all levels.
- A Local Government Association survey of councillors carried out last year as part of its ‘Debate not Hate’ campaign found that:
- 52 per cent of councillors replying reported that they have had untrue or misleading information about their political or personal conduct publicly published, with respondents warning of the “dangers to democracy”.
- 64 per cent said they had experienced abuse online, including on social media platforms, while 59 per cent said they had experienced in-person abuse.
- That women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled people, and LGBTQ+ people are subject to disproportionately high levels of abuse, intimidation and threats.
- That a 2026 Local Government Chronicle survey reported that 52 per cent of respondents said concern about online abuse affected decisions to whether to stand or re-stand.
- That The Guardian reported on 7 May 2026 that parties had described abuse during the 2026 devolved and local election campaigns as the “worst year in memory”.
- The role of social media in enabling abuse, threats, harassment and misinformation to be directed at candidates and elected officials easily, repeatedly and at scale.
- That in the 2025 LGA Debate Not Hate survey, one fifth of councillors replying said that they have had a threat of violence or death against themselves, this rose to one quarter if you included threats against someone close to them.
Conference further notes:
- The creation of Operation Bridger and Operation Ford to deal with violence and threats against, respectively, MPs and parliamentary candidates, and councillors and local candidates.
- The effectiveness and responsiveness of police forces to threats and abuse under Operation Ford is highly variable from force to force.
- Abuse and threats are not limited to elected representatives and candidates but can be directed towards, or involve, spouses, partners and children and staff.
- That Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects an individual’s rights to hold and express opinions.
Conference believes that:
- Abuse, threats and violence have a chilling impact on democracy – they stifle debate, discourage individual involvement in civic life and discourage people, in particular those most likely to face abuse, from standing or re-standing for elected office and leadership positions.
- Freedom of expression and debate is an essential part of a liberal society and there will always be the need to balance protecting elected officials and protecting everyone’s right to freedom of speech.
- There is a difference between robust debate and criticism, and even rudeness, on the one hand and threats, violence and repetitive abuse on the other.
- Directing abuse at, or involving, the families and children of elected officials is always wrong.
- The publication of elected officials’ and candidates’ home addresses is not necessary within a modern democratic society when there are multiple routes to communicate with elected representatives.
- Social media companies have a duty to deal with illegal and threatening behaviour on their sites, which is not being fully met.
Conference resolves that:
- The law should be amended so that no candidate is required, or given a default option, to publish their home address as part of the nomination process for any election, and so that home address forms are available only to those with a clear and legitimate statutory reason to view them.
- Election agents should be able to use a party office, or other approved election correspondence address, as their legal office address where publication of their home address would create a personal safety or privacy risk.
- Returning Officers should have a new duty to validate the home address statements of candidates in elections.
- The Electoral Commission should produce a code of practice for election officials, drawing together all the necessary information related to the safety and security of candidates in local elections; Returning Officers should have a duty to share such information with candidates.
- Hostility towards relatives and staff of elected officials and candidates should be a statutory aggravating factor in any offence committed and should lead to a disqualification order under the Elections Act 2022.
- Police forces should be placed under a clear duty to implement Operation Ford consistently, ensuring that frontline officers understand the scheme, recording relevant incidents as Operation Ford incidents where appropriate, and reporting annually on abuse, threats, harassment and violence against candidates and elected officials.
- Operation Ford needs a large increase in funding if it is to be effective.
- Guidance to police forces and prosecutors should make clear that repeated, targeted or escalating behaviour should be assessed cumulatively, rather than each incident being considered only in isolation.
- The new unit within the National Crime Agency proposed in the Liberal Democrat policy paper 166, Defending Democracy, should include advising police forces on how to handle abuse, threats and violence against local elected officials, just as they already provide specialist advice for MPs, including considering the cumulative impact of abusive behaviour on individuals.
- A UK-wide support service for local elected officials should be set up, jointly by the local government associations operating in the nations of the UK, to provide confidential advice and support, to fast-track the most serious cases to the relevant police force, and, in the most serious cases, to provide grants, funded by the Home Office, for home security, CCTV and personal panic alarms.
- Social media firms operating in the UK should have a statutory responsibility to tackle abuse against elected officials and be required to provide a support line, staffed by humans, for political parties’ HQs and UK -wide support service to report the most serious cases of online abuse and harm to