Lib Dem response to Biden/Harris victory

Responding to the news that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have won the US presidential election, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said:

"People around the world will now be breathing a huge sigh of relief. Over the past four years Donald Trump has fed a new divisive form of politics, testing American democracy to its very limits. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's victory isn't just democratic, it may have saved US democracy.

"I'd like to congratulate Joe Biden and urge him not only to deliver on his promise to restore liberal values in the United States, but also to ensure the US will play a constructive role in the international battle to beat Coronavirus. The virus, like all of the world's biggest problems, can only be solved if we work together as an international community.

"I hope Joe Biden will be a president who fights alongside progressives for social justice and climate action at home and abroad."

Speaking locally, Lib Dem Amy Tisi said,

"The Democrat win in the US, gives us all hope that the progressive values of our liberal democratic model, which has been the bedrock of western societies since the the Second World War, can prevail over the march of the populist right, with its hatred, blame and scapegoating.

"We saw in Windsor the damage done with the former Conservative council leader's disgraceful treatment of the homeless, calling on the police to arrest the homeless, from his skiing holiday in America. Next door in Maidenhead we have an MP, who as Home Secretary, presided over the deportion of Black British Citizens of the Windrush Generation to third countries, despite it being well known that these actions were illegal.

"We hope with the retreat of this unpleasant politics that the whole world may start to move forward into the broad, sunlit uplands of a kinder, fairer and gentler politics."