Why Vote for the Liberal Democrats in the General Elections on 8 June?

Extract of interview with Cohan Chew of Resonate Voices

Phil Ling was a Liberal Democrats candidate for Tooting, London in the UK's 2015 general election. He now considers himself an an activist for the party and Treasurer of the Chinese Lib Dems.

"This election comes at the time when the UK is undertaking in the word's of Michael Heseltine, Tory Peer and ex Deputy Prime Minister, "most momentous peacetime decision of our time" with Brexit. Sadly instead of looking to have an orderly and genial exit, the Tory party have morphed into UKIP and threatening the EU and pursuing a Brexit which is leaving uncertainty in the economy. Firms are already deciding to invest in the rest of the EU rather than in the UK for access to the single market and to protect their complex supply chain from tariffs.

Brexiteers believe that leaving the EU will enable the UK to have free trade with countries like China, but when Germany and France each have 2-3 times more trade with China than the UK, it's obviously not free trade agreements that are the problem. The Liberal Democrats are offering the chance to have a referendum on the terms of any deal to leave with the option to remain on the ballot paper. This is important as we decided on departure but not the destination with regards to the EU.

Brexit is important as you cannot have a strong economy with a hard brexit, it is already consuming time, as well as a financial cost to the Treasury.

We also acknowledge though that the NHS needs more resources, as growing demand and services offered, means we'd put an extra penny on income tax in the short term, to raise £6bn for NHS, mental health and social care. Whilst also having a cross party commission, involving clinicians and the public, to decide on the long term plan for the NHS.

We'd reverse the cuts to the Education budget, and protect real per pupil spending. The Liberal Democrats would prevent Government from snooping on us via the internet, with their proposal for backdoor access to services like WhatsApp.

Lastly, a Chinese Liberal Democrat proposal, has been adopted, which is for firms with over 250 employees to publish their pay by ethnicity, as well as gender, to identify any discrimination."