Democratic Reform Party

Campaign categories: economic justice, environment, health, social justice, transport, housing and homelessness, democracy, poverty

Location: England

The Democratic Reform Party is a liberal and social democratic party, which exists to improve the lives of all UK citizens, and also make the world a better place to live in.

In the wake of the 2010 General Election a number of people got together online and began to discuss the possibility of launching a new, broadly centre-left, political party. With the Lib Dems going into coalition with the Tories and Labour apparently not learning the lessons of the past 13 years, during which millions of supporters left them, there seemed to be a gap in the political market.

Robert Battison took up the challenge and spearheaded efforts to draw this group of people together and form them into a distinct new party: the Democratic Reform Party.

With a focus on reforming the UK to make it more democratic the party has adopted a constitution which states: “The Democratic Reform Party is a liberal and social democratic party, which exists to improve the lives of all UK citizens, and also make the world a better place to live in.” We see ’democratic reform’ as meaning more than just constitutional change – although real and serious constitutional change is absolutely vital. It also means changing our political culture and introducing policies aimed at putting ordinary people in control of their political processes and decisions.

We have formed this new party to provide a home to all those on the centre-left, to all those who believe that society and state both have a role to play in improving the lives of our fellow citizens, who understand that liberty and social justice go together, and who believe that the mechanics and processes of our politics must change if we’re to improve the outcomes and results of political life.

www.democraticreform.org.uk/