Lib Dem rising star quits party in ‘gendered abuse’ row

The Liberal Democrats’ track record with female party activists has suffered in recent years after Lord Rennard was accused of sexual harassment. While the party have done their best since then to deal with the claims against the Lib Dem peer, they now face accusations of ‘gendered abuse’.

Steerpike understands that one of the party’s rising stars has stepped down from her role on the Federal Executive — the governing board of the Liberal Democrats — claiming that the party is not currently a safe place for women of colour.

Kavya Kaushik has written a post on her personal blog explaining her reasons for quitting the party. In this she criticises the Lib Dems, accusing the party of double standards when it comes to how they treat coloured women and how they treat white men. She says that this mistreatment became apparent on joining the FE:

‘After joining FE this became much worse with people constantly telling me that I should have a different standard of behaviour as a member of FE.