When the Liberal Democrats were in Government, I had the privilege of being Minister of State for Care and Support at the Department of Health. As Health Minister I worked to ensure that mental health was treated with the same priority as physical health, introducing the first ever access and waiting time standards for mental health. We also secured more money for children and young people's mental health services.

I am pleased to announce today our new spokespeople who will speak out on the most important issues we face in Britain today.

While Parliament is consumed by Brexit, we need to remember that people are also affected by a whole host of other challenges.

We will continue to speak up for them as we continue our fight for the public to have a say on the Brexit deal with a People's Vote.

As the battle over Brexit in Parliament reaches its final stages, many people are asking me, "what has happened to the People's Vote"?

Behind the political manoeuvring and procedural wrangles at Westminster, there is still everything to play for. The People's Vote is alive and well.

The next step to securing it is to narrow the options, by removing a massively disruptive 'no deal' from the table.

Today is International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation

Back in 2013 when I was a DFID minister, together with campaigners like Nimco Ali and Efua Dorkeeno, we kicked off the original government campaign on FGM. We succeeded in securing the biggest ever spending commitment in the world of £35 million to work towards eradicating FGM worldwide.

Dear Fellow Lib Dems,
It was with great sadness that we heard of the death of Rod and Sheelah Bailey. Rod was a great champion for Andover and a staunch Lib Dem, whose name often came up when canvassing. I enclose a note from Len Gates which does Rod and Sheelah proud.
Regards
Luigi

Len Gates writes:
Rod Bailey was born 27/11/1935 and died 14/1/2019, his wife Sheelah was three years younger and died 25/1/2019. Rod's funeral was last Friday and was a privatefamily only affair. Best photo I've seen is the mayoral one on his Facebook page (above). Please be aware his family did not want a big circus commemorating his life or passing.

We are currently seeking applicants for a new policy working group on the Nature of Public Debate.

The Federal Policy Committee is setting up a new working group to develop new Liberal Democrat Policy on the Nature of Public Debate.

The working group will look into the developing challenges to high-quality public debate, including:

Today is World Cancer Day.

Half of the people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. 38% of those diagnoses will have been preventable.

But waiting times for cancer treatment are at the worst level they have ever been. Our NHS is struggling to diagnose rising rates of cancer. Thanks to Conservative mismanagement, it's recruiting fewer doctors, radiologists and nurses.

Have you heard about our Local Elections Action Weekend yet?

We send out a lot of emails.

One of the groups of people we email are Lib Dem campaigners. They receive resources for local literature, templates and bulk buy deals, local and online campaigns training and support for holding local events.

As there are a lot of people who no longer open these emails who receive them, we are refreshing the email list.

We have come a long way in recent years.

I was the originator and architect of the same-sex marriage act

I was the originator and architect of the same-sex marriage act, which legalised same-sex marriage in the UK on the 5^th February 2013, when I was the minister for equalities in the Home Office. I came in at the end of the story when countless activists had been fighting to for this change - I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to take the bill to parliament. But it took the courageous Liberal Democrat politicians to make this change against big lobbying interests.