Speech by Simon Hughes MP, Federal Party President

7.57.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 20th Sep 2006

Today was Simon Hughes' turn to address the Party Conference - he did so as President, below is what he said:

Conference, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to be our Party's President for the last two years. Not that they have both been entirely uncomplicated!

First, the warmest and most grateful thank you to Charles for all that he has done for us and the success he helped us to achieve over his seven years as leader. Second, as Charles did yesterday, I confirm unambiguously that Ming has had and always will have my personal and our collective loyal support for his leadership.

There have been some great moments for Liberal Democrats in the last twelve months.

In Willie Rennie's election and in Ben Abbotts' very near election, we saw two excellent parliamentary candidates do the party proud. May all our by-election teams be so well led!

Following this May's local elections, we have a record number of 79 council groups which now have Liberal Democrats in power or sharing power. We are increasingly able to take power and use it responsibly. In more and more places, we now have the experience and the people to become a credible, respected, and determined alternative government.

Today, across Britain, we have over 4700 councillors. Just 1500 fewer than Labour. For the first time the possibility of overtaking Labour to become the second party of local government across Britain is within our grasp.

This year we mark 36 years since the Liberal Party agreed our theory and practice of community politics.

When community politics was born Liberal Democrats had 1 in 25 of Britain's councillors. Today we have more than 1 in 5. And unlike Labour and the Conservatives ours is not a story of local government boom and bust. Our story is one of solid and steady growth.

We passed the 1 out of 10 councillors mark in 1985 and have never slipped back below. We passed the 1 in 5 mark for the first time in 1995, and,again, have never slipped back. This year is the fourth year in the last ten since then when we have reached 22%. We will soon have one quarter of all Britain's elected councillors.

We now have a base across Britain the like of which we have never had before.

Next year, of course, brings elections to parliaments in Wales and Scotland and important local elections across Scotland and England. We have so much to be proud of in Scotland, England and Wales.

But pre-eminent in our constellation of stars are our colleagues in Scotland who in 1999 won their way in to government and in 2003 defended their record fantastically well and again increased their support.

They are now coming to the end of their second partnership government, have transferred the leadership from Jim Wallace to Nicol Stephen, and now have the strongest of foundations to build upon for many successes in future.

Thank you Jim and Nicol.

Thank you Scottish Liberal Democrats.

We wish you all the very best in your bid to become the largest party in the Scottish Parliament next May, and for the first ever elections for Scottish local government by proportional representation on the same day.

Jim, you have all done us proud - and we are sure that you will do so again.

This party is of course not only about the leader, parliamentarians, and councillors. Liberal Democrats are a much bigger family. We include a huge number of volunteers who day in and day out print and deliver the leaflets, organise, and keep the books, and do much, much else.

We often hear how important it is to encourage volunteering. I agree.

This political party and politics as a whole should never be led by people who pay for influence or who think political persuasion can be exchanged for political purchase. We have to win the argument, not buy the votes.

And the best people to win the argument are in fact not the people who are paid to be Liberal Democrats but the people who give their time, energy and talents for free. All our political progress depends as much on volunteers who do not seek public office, as on our councillors and parliamentarians.

As a sign of the recognition by our party of the extraordinary contributions of so many, I want just to mention just six people to show how much we owe.

These people exemplify the sort of personal sacrifices and dedication over years and decades for the cause of liberalism which is a public service of the highest order.

Three are very sadly no longer with us. James Ashley, at the time of his untimely death this summer Lord Mayor of Manchester, Patsy Calton, great victor at last year's general election but soon lost to cancer, and our beloved Harriet Smith, who tragically died a few weeks ago among family and friends just down the road from here.

As I said earlier, the party will commemorate Patsy and Harriet in two new awards that will be first presented next year.

But three other great party servants are very much alive and have extraordinary records of great service to our great cause.

Derek Ezra first joined the Liberal Party when he went to university in 1936, 70 years ago. Navnit Dholakia this year celebrates 50 years from his famous recruitment as Young Liberal activist to party president and peer. And lastly Stan Hardy, President of my own local party and one of my firmest mentors, who celebrates 60 years of party activity this year. Derek and Navnit are not able to be in Brighton this morning, but Stan Hardy is of course with us today. Conference, please acknowledge them, and all others like them. So many individuals have brought our party to the success we have already achieved.

I referred briefly earlier to the more complicated days for our party at the beginning of this year.

At the end of our difficult three months, Ming was duly and decisively elected. I reaffirm my unchanging view and the party's belief that Ming is an excellent, principled and credible leader, who will in all his days in office be fully recognised and appreciated as a leader of courage, style - and substance.

I also congratulate Chris Huhne on his campaign and impressive contribution as Shadow Environment Secretary.

And I am very grateful to all those who supported me.

On a personal note, I have certainly emerged a little wiser as well as stronger.

And so, from experience, I would like to offer some words of encouragement to other people inside the party and beyond, in politics and elsewhere.

Liberal Democrats will go on working with determination to build a society where we stereotype less and respect people individually more. And we as a country must make sure that we agree clearer boundaries between public and private, something much more needed for people less able to cope or more likely to be put off from public life and public service than people like me.

From the general election my principal concern as President was to build the party's base in all parts of the community and in all places.

This year, at last, we have organised so that in future we will have the information that allows us to see what our membership fully looks like, what our councillor profile is, and how much our pool of prospective parliamentary candidates reflects the modern Britain we live in.

We will not deserve to continue to grow if at all levels we are not representative and seen to be representative.

The transfer of allegiance in August of the 'Derby 37' from Labour to us should be an encouragement to us all.

But of course I'm not just talking about recruitment of asian Britons, but residents from other European countries, members of our growing African and Afro-Caribbean communities, and those of many and various communities settled here from different countries across Asia, Latin America and elsewhere should be natural supporters of pluralist, internationalist, social liberalism.

As our diversity increases, so more people will be drawn to our party and become a part of our party. As more people from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, faiths and beliefs, become a part of the Liberal Democrats, so it will become increasingly easier to succeed still further.

This means diversity by professional background as well - not only recruiting from conventional groups such as teachers or business people, but from the whole range of society.

A party supporter who is a friend of mine and a professional footballer hopes to be with us in Brighton later today. And before you ask, yes, the Liberal Democrats must reach out not just to footballers but also to their 'WAGS' - the footballers wives! And yes we can try recruiting members of bands like the Artic Monkeys as well!

Greater emphasis must be put on recruitment and retention of members - something that has not been done as well as we might have wished in the past.

I am absolutely certain that we have not reached our membership ceiling, far from it, and there are huge numbers of people amongst the millions who now vote for us who can become more permanent supporters.

This conference marks for me the end of two years as Federal President. I have not yet achieved all I want to do. For the first nine months, with everyone else, understandably and almost entirely, I focused on the forthcoming general election.

Then we had English local elections this year. Congratulations to all those elected, particularly for the first time. The results were, to be honest, a mixed bag. For Richmond-upon-Thames and St Albans to be regained were great victories. South Lakeland gained for the first time, was even greater. And don't forget West Lindsey, won back into our fold a couple of weeks later. To all those who won and held power, a particular well done.

And congratulations too to those who have won and held seats in council by-elections over the last 12 months. We have gained seats up and down the country, from Labour, Conservatives and independents alike.

In many ways our greatest successes have come where we gained seats having already been in overall, minority, or joint control. The opportunity of incumbency can be powerful indeed. But this May's local elections saw increasing discrimination by the electorate against incumbents and in favour of oppositions.

The difficulties of incumbency are also shown by our record of retaining seats in parliament. If our party and its predecessors had held all of the seats that we have won in by-elections and general elections since the last war, we would now have around 90 members of parliament. Moving closer to power and advice on party membership have one thing on common. Holding support is as important as winning the support in the first place.

Conference, my message to you today is this - there is all to play for. Next year's elections are as important as any we have fought in recent history.

In the Conservatives' glory days, 14 million people voted for them. At the last national count, it was under 9 million.

In 1997 Labour won 13.5 million votes. But at the last election they were down to under 10 million - their lowest total of votes since 1935.

The convergence between the Labour and the Conservative parties provides this party with a new and great opportunity to build on our successes and forge an increasingly distinctive position, as we set out our vision for a fairer, freer and greener country and world - to win millions of new voters to our cause.

It should be, can be, and will be a very exciting time to help mould our party into one that is ready for the new century, and one ready for a new bold era of liberal politics.

Britain is a liberal country. We need to excite people again with the appeal and importance of liberal democracy. The campaign for success next May and beyond must begin now.

After two leadership elections and one presidential election, some people have asked me whether I have now had enough of elections. I hope I don't disappoint too many of you but the answer is an emphatic no.

So today, I am asking my local party to allow me to stand again in my beloved Southwark and Bermondsey at the next general election, and for party members to support me as I this week put my name forward to stand for a second term as federal party president.

Conference, our party is stronger than ever. And Britain needs a Liberal Democrat government more than ever.

This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the radical Liberal government of 1906. That golden era lasted less than 20 years.

We now must be more ambitious. We now have the largest Liberal Democrat presence in Parliament for 80 years. From a local government base of nearly a quarter of the country, with great prospects that Labour will find it very difficult to secure a fourth term, and the Conservatives having a mountain to climb from their two worst general election performances for nearly 200 years, we now have the people, the resources, the credibility and the policies to do in Westminster what we have recently achieved in Scotland and Wales.

The opportunity for liberal government has never been greater in our lifetimes. Our task in every week from now until next May's elections, the 2008 London and local elections, the 2009 European elections and at the General Election whenever it comes is to turn opportunity into reality.

Now is our time to deliver. We know how to do the work. We have in the past suffered from a lack of self-confidence and sometimes from a poverty of ambition. There is no longer an excuse for poverty of ambition.

The public need us to be as ambitious as possible. Around the world liberal democracy is making great strides. We are one of the leaders of that great liberal democratic movement in Europe and beyond.

It is time in Britain to bring liberal democracy home.