TRADE union members who voted Lib Dem at the last General Election say they have been betrayed by the cuts in public services.

NHS worker Stephen Humphries, a member of the GMB union, resigned from the Lib Dems in June in protest at the cuts.

He had been a senior member of the local party in St Helens; Lib Dem Executive and Chair of Thatto Heath and West Park Lib Dems. He had previously held the post of Membership Development Officer, on the Town’s Lib Dem Executive.

Stephen, aged 39, said: “I was very active in the Lib Dems and at the last General Election worked hard to get John Pugh re-elected as Lib Dem MP in Southport. It is a marginal seat so we encouraged Labour voters to vote for the Lib Dems on the basis that John Pugh would be a ’safe pair of hands’ as their MP and would look after their interests. Unfortunately, we were proved otherwise.

“Betrayal is not too strong a word for what happened.

“We are already starting to see the impact of the Coalition’s policies in the NHS – cuts in services, not filling vacancies, tendering out services.

“How can you trust the Conservatives? I remember what they did to this town and this region in the 80’s and they are doing the same again under the cloak of the Coalition Government.

“betrayal is not too strong a word”

“They don’t believe in public services, they believe in people fending for themselves. But not everyone has got the wherewithal to buy services for themselves. And the most vulnerable are always the most dependent on decent public services.

“It’s sad to see the Lib Dems collaborating with the Tories to attack the weakest in our communities.”

Stephen added: “People like me joined the Lib Dems because we believed in liberal values. By aligning with the Conservatives now and supporting their attacks on public services, the Lib Dems are flying in the face of liberal values. It is ideological vandalism.”

“the Lib Dems are flying in the face of liberal values”

Another public servant, Simon B., a member of the PCS union, voted Lib Dem in Southport at the last General Election to keep the Tories out.

He said: “To be frank, I’m a tactical voter. I wanted to keep the Tory out in Southport, so I voted Lib Dem. I laughed myself stupid when they went into coalition with the Conservatives within days of the election. They suddenly forgot everything they had stood for.

“The last thing anyone expected was for the Lib Dems to support the Tories with such a right wing agenda of cutting public services.

“There are a lot of people in my position who are now wondering what they have done by voting in John Pugh as Lib Dem MP, when he turns around and starts cutting services. There’s no doubt that John Pugh owes his job entirely to tactical voting in Southport.”

Now Simon can only watch as he sees staff being laid off and offices being closed down, while his partner, who works for JobCentre Plus, also faces an anxious and uncertain future.

Simon added: “I don’t remember John Pugh standing on an election platform of cutting the services which people rely upon. The Coalition is hitting the poor and making them pay for bankers who did very well out of the recession thank you, after billions of pounds of public money bailed them out.

“But to read the press now, you would think that it was public servants who got the country into this mess and it was all our fault. None of us were selling sub-prime mortgages in the United States when the crash came!

“I can’t see myself ever voting Lib Dem again if they carry on like this. They are hitting the wrong people – those who really depend on public services.”

“He said that by voting Andrew Stunell you would be keeping out the Conservatives“

After voting Lib Dem at the last General Election, Executive Officer Oliver H., aged 29,  is already witnessing the dole queues lengthen at Oldham JobCentre.

Oliver, a member of the PCS union, paid close attention to the General Election campaign in his home constituency of Hazel Grove where Lib Dem candidate Andrew Stunell was voted in on an anti-Tory platform.

Oliver said: “I got a bit of a shock, along with everybody else, when I found out that the Lib Dems had gone into a coalition with the Conservatives. It was a double shock when I found out that Mr Stunell was one of the architects of that Coalition!

“When he was campaigning in the General Election in Hazel Grove, Andrew Stunell was very clearly warning people about what a Conservative Government would do.  On all his election literature he highlighted all that was wrong about their policies.

“He said that by voting Andrew Stunell  you would be keeping out the Conservatives. I voted for him on that basis. But then he did a complete about-turn!

“I feel totally mislead. It was even worse when I found out that he had actually been involved in creating the Coalition Government and had then been rewarded with a position in David Cameron’s cabinet. It’s a massive betrayal of everyone who voted for him.”

Oliver added: “At JobCentre Plus we are in the front line of cuts – we see the impact of the recession and what happens to people when they lose their jobs.”

“I thought I would be helping to keep the Conservatives out,but I was sadly wrong”

Medical records worker, Lilian C., aged 64, who works at the NHS Information Centre in Southport is another public servant who voted tactically for the Lib Dems.

Lilian, a member of the PCS union, said:”When I voted Lib Dem, it was against the Conservatives. I thought Labour would never win here in Southport. I thought I would be helping to keep the Conservatives out, but I was sadly wrong.

“I am very upset that the Lib Dems went into a coalition, I think it’s awful and I am horrified at what they are doing now.

“They haven’t thought it through, they are making cuts far too fast without any real thought. It’s very dangerous to make these kind of cuts so quickly and put thousands of people out of work.

“Most of my colleagues earn just above the minimum wage and many of them get Family Credit. Now they are going to have their pay frozen and will have to work harder to cover for people who have been made redundant. It is causing a lot of stress and worry for people who are struggling to make ends meet anyway.

“In my view this is just a right-wing attack on ordinary people. It is about cutting costs across the board and outsourcing work to the private sector.”