A new campaign has been launched by the North West Trades Union Congress to persuade the Region’s five Lib Dem MPs to withdraw their support for the Coalition Government’s massive spending cuts.
The campaign – ‘Focus on the LibDem5’ – will target the North West’s five Lib Dem MP’s – John Leech, MP for Manchester Withington; Andrew Stunell MP for Hazel Grove; Mark Hunter MP for Cheadle Hulme; John Pugh MP for Southport; and Gordon Birtwistle MP for Burnley.
Mr Stunell was one of the architects of the Coalition Government and was rewarded with a job as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government, with special responsibility for the Big Society, housing and regeneration, community cohesion and race equality.
Union members are to lobby the ‘LibDem5’ in their own constituencies in the run-up to a national TUC protest rally on the eve of the Lib Dem Annual Conference in Liverpool on Sunday, September 19th.
The union campaign will also focus on the constituents of the ‘LibDem5’, especially those who work in public services and who are union members.
The North West TUC aim to rally their support to urge their Members of Parliament to change course and stop supporting the Coalition’s cuts, before Chancellor George Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Assessment reveals huge new spending cuts on October 20th.
The campaign will also focus on the LibDem5 on the TUC’s public services web site, ‘Proud to serve the public’ and through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
North West TUC Regional Secretary Alan Manning said: “None of these five Lib Dem MPs stood for wholesale cuts in public services at the General Election – but once in Government, they quickly changed their minds.
“Public servants living in the constituencies of the ‘LibDem5’ risk losing their jobs as a result of the Coalition’s policies, along with many workers in the private sector whose jobs depend on public construction contracts, local authority work and similar programmes. We want those workers and the tens of thousands of voters who rely on public services from day to day, to tell their local Lib Dem MP exactly how they feel.
“We will appeal to the ‘LibDem5’ to change their minds and stop supporting the Coalition’s reckless and socially divisive attacks on public services and loyal public servants who are proud to serve the public.
“If the ‘LibDem5’ continue to support these huge cuts, they must be in no doubt that they will pay a price and risk losing their seats at the next election.
“The ‘LibDem5’ should instead be focussing on bankers astronomical bonuses, the massive profits made by the banks and a fairer tax system, rather than making their own constituents pay for the bankers’ recession.”
Mr Manning added: “We will also be targeting the Conservative half of the Coalition Government in the North West – but we hope to make an impact with the ‘LibDem5’ and their supporters, many of whom feel utterly betrayed by the Coalition.”
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'Proud to serve the public’ is a North West TUC campaign to protect and promote public services in our Region. We believe public services are a vital part of the North West economy. They create jobs, stimulate growth and... 
