‘Lib Dems will pay for abandoning roots’

A FORMER Liberal Democrat councillor says the party has ditched its “core, fundamental values” and faces a difficult time at the ballot box in next month’s local government elections.

Duncan Cumming quit the Lib Dems in protest at the impact of coalition government welfare changes and is standing as an independent in East Dunbartonshire when voters go to the polls on 3 May.

The SNP says it is confident of taking the council this time after a Labour-Conservative coalition was formed in aftermath of the 2007 vote which kept out the Nationalists, who had won most seats.

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The SNP took the Holyrood seat last year from Labour, while Jo Swinson holds the Westminster seat for the Lib Dems.

But Mr Cumming, who is standing in Bearsden North, said: “I think the party has moved very significantly even from two years ago and I don’t like the direction of travel.

“I’m still a great believer in liberal democracy, decentralisation, those core liberal values – traditional Scottish liberal values. They remain with me, but I think the party has moved away from those core fundamental values.”

The imposition of increased student fees is another coalition policy that prompted Mr Cumming to quit the Lib Dems last year, and he says his old party faces an uncertain fate in May.

“I think it will be a difficult election for them,” he added.

The SNP is confident of building on the eight councillors it returned last time in the 24-seat council. A majority appears unlikely, although a deal with the independents could allow the Nationalists to seize power.

SNP group leader Ian MacKay says the Tory and Labour coalition “had trouble agreeing anything” and only spent 48 per cent of its capital budget last year.

“That’s what we’re trying to get across to the electorate – why would you vote for someone who can’t get their act together and spend the budget they’ve got,” Mr MacKay said.

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“They can’t make up their minds what they’re going to do with the primary school estate and for the past five years have spent nothing on it.”

Labour’s Rhondda Geekie, the council leader, defended the deal with the Conservatives.

“No-one is putting up enough candidates to have an overall majority, so we have to work with some other party – what we have to do is find how much we have in common,” she said.

Ms Geekie said there were concerns about the withdrawal of bus services after cuts in the bus service operator’s grant.