When you’re a smaller party I think it naturally gives you an understanding of what it feels like to be an underdog, and a passion to level the playing field.
For too long, small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) – independent traders, the self-employed, local businesses – have been neglected by the two bigger parties. Labour remains in hock to the trade unions; the Tories genuflect before big business. The liberal tradition is anti-monopoly, pro-competition and supports the promotion of fairness for all.
So which party will stand up for the UK’s 1.2 million small businesses? The plumber who gets up at the crack of dawn to do their accounts, the young entrepreneur filling in an application for a bank loan, the parent who does the school run before opening their store for the day?
As we enter the new parliament, I want Liberal Democrats to stand up loudly and clearly for small businesses.
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