Ealing Liberal Democrats launch their local election manifesto

Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Gary Malcolm with supporters on the steps of Ealing Town Hall on Saturday

“Labour is letting people down”

Ealing’s Liberal Democrat party launched its manifesto for the 2026 local elections on Saturday (11 April) on the steps of Ealing Town Hall.

Party Leader Cllr Gary Malcolm, who represents Southfield ward on Ealing Council, which includes Bedford Park, told The Chiswick Calendar that despite national polls showing the Lib Dems trailing behind the Labour, Conservatives and Green parties with only 12% support, he was confident that would not be the case in Ealing.

“We have momentum. We have eight councillors, we have won a by-election, we have had a defection [Labour East Acton ward councillor Kate Crawford swapped parties and announced she was joining the Liberal Democrats last month]. We are getting support from Conservative and Labour voters.

“Labour is letting people down. The streets are dirty; the high streets feel more unsafe; and there is lots of visible drug culture”.

Presenting the manifesto

“Reform are doing us a favour”

Despite the success of Reform’s campaign – they have been leading consistently in the polls nationally – there were six areas in which the Liberal Democrats were looking to make gains in Ealing.

“I despise Reform. They are about breaking communities apart whereas we are all about building communities up. But they will probably help the Lib Dems in quite a lot of areas where we’re campaigning by taking Labour votes”.

In constrast to Reform, who have been found to be fielding ‘paper’ candidates in some places, telling their candidates they need not campaign or make speeches, and that they were only on the ballot paper in safe Labour seats to give voters the option of voting for Reform, he said the Liberal Democrats in Ealing had preparing their candidates to do the job of a councillor.

“Our activists who will become councillors have been acting as if they are already councillors: going to Council meetings, organising petitions, speaking at meetings, so when they are elected, they will start running from day one”.

Key manifesto pledges

Protecting public services

“The first thing we would do on day one would be to stop the cuts to the ten children’s centres because they only cost a third of a million [pounds] to keep. We’ve budgeted for that in our official budget recently. It can be done, and it’s what people want, up and down Ealing.

A clean and safe Ealing

“We would deliver a clean and safe Ealing. We’ve seen our streets get dirtier and dirtier over the past couple of years and we need to make sure that there are efforts to that. Recycling can be increased across the borough. Acton recycling centre would be reopened because it was useful to increase the recycling rate.

Support local businesses

“We also want to support local businesses. We’ve seen some of the stealth parking taxes that have been introduced have made some of our shops less profitable and less viable. So many have closed on Ealing High Street, West Ealing High Street, Acton High Street. Some of that needs to change and the Council can’t change everything, but it needs to do its bit.

New Ealing app

“We would also introduce a new Ealing app, like the Richmond app. That’s where you could park at reduced rates if you live in the borough, but also you could shop at a slightly discounted rate in the shops that take part in it. And we would cancel the Stop and Shop Plus, which we know has harmed a number of local streets such as Pitzhanger and many others around the borough.

Planning

“We want to protect our status as the ‘Queen of the suburbs’. We would introduce mansion style block housing rather than large tower blocks. In many places that are seen to be inappropriate, a slightly less dense, mansion style blocks that would be acceptable around the whole borough.

“We’d have a higher, truly affordable, housing rate. We’ve seen the Mayor decrease his. We need to have a slightly higher target than the Mayor’s.

Treat residents with respect

“We want to treat residents with respect. So many times at the moment, we do a consultation for a Council and they use the results for their own aims. They’ve already decided what they want to do. So we would make sure that consultations were fair and followed a proper process.

“We’d make sure that parking fines were adjudicated correctly. Some of the School Street schemes are very harsh. A constituent of mine who has stage four cancer moved four or five metres forward, went into the zone accidentally and was given a fine, and she wouldn’t have that fine cancelled by the officers, when she proved she was going to hospital.

Encourage more sport

“We would lastly make sure that sport was a bigger factor in the borough. We want to get many of our big organisations around the borough to participate and help fund and cooperate and sponsor sport, whether it’s cricket, tennis, football or hockey. We’ve got some good facilities, but we need to improve those, and take kids off the streets, playing sport and really developing themselves, as well as linking in with youth centres.

“They are the six main areas we are following in the ‘Six to fix’ manifesto.

“In the local elections to come, the Liberal Democrats are on the up. We will make gains against both the Tories and Labour”.

Cllr Gary Malcolm will be standing for election on 7 May in Southfields, alongside his two colleagues Cllr Gary Busuttil and Cllr Andrew Steed.

Read more stories on The Chiswick Calendar