Lib Dem fears party ‘wipeout’
A frustrated Liberal Democrat council leader has warned his party could be “wiped out” if it continues to support the Conservatives’ cutting agenda.
Warren Bradley, leader of the Liberal Democrats’ 37 councillors in Liverpool, told the Liverpool Daily Post newspaper that the cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme was the “straw that has broken the camel’s back” and forced him to speak out.
He said he felt “physically sick” when he heard the news and warned many of his councillors were considering leaving the party.
“I think the national party have got to wake up and listen to the people on the ground that are hearing the complaints from core voters,” Mr Bradley said.
“Being in coalition should be a two-way street. There are times when [Nick] Clegg has got to say to Cameron ‘no more’.”
Liverpool’s Lib Dems have called for a council meeting to discuss their concerns, which they hope will prompt reassuring words from the party’s leadership.
Mr Bradley is concerned that southern voters will prefer the Tories to the Lib Dems while in the north the party’s supporters will switch to Labour – following significant squeezing to this effect in the general election.
“I see a time when the electorate will say: well actually what’s the point in voting Liberal Democrat? They’ll join a coalition with the Tories, therefore we’ll vote Labour,” he told BBC News.
“That’s not what I got into politics for and clearly not what most Liberal Democrats stand for.”
Mr Bradley’s warning signals significant grassroots discontent with the party’s decision to enter into a formal coalition government with the Conservatives.
A senior figure in the party told politics.co.uk earlier this week that it was an “awkward squad” of the party’s parliamentarians who represented the biggest threat to the coalition.
He argued Lib Dem councillors, used to working in coalitions at local authority level, were more comfortable with the Tory-Lib Dem tie-up. Mr Bradley’s comments appear to contradict his optimism.
