The transfer season on Liverpool Council is continuing with a Childwall member trading one Liberal group for another.
Amid a breakaway group being formed from ex-Labour members earlier this week, Cllr Alan Tormey has confirmed he has left the Liberal Democrat group to join the Liberal group, led by Cllr Steve Radford. Cllr Tormey, who was elected in 2019, fired a parting shot at his former colleagues and criticised the leadership.
He said: “It’s something that has been with me for some time. I feel like there is a lack of coherence in the Liberal Democrat group.
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“It’s not like I moved to the Labour group but I just feel like it’s time to move on. The group isn’t where it should be and I think it’s on a downturn and needs new blood.
“I was elected to get involved in pavement politics and it felt like we were shifting away from that. We should be challenging more and we weren’t.
“I’ve enjoyed working with the Liberal Party and I spoke to Steve about it after thinking about it for a month or two. I didn’t feel supported by the party over the last two years and the Liberal group is a more community focused group.”
Cllr Tormey’s sideways move leaves the Liberal Democrats with 11 councillors, still the largest opposition group on Liverpool Council, and raises the Liberal group numbers to five. Cllr Richard Kemp, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, fired back at his former colleague’s claims.
He said: “We don’t like to lose people but we’ve had difficulties with Alan since Christmas. I’ve had complaints from other councillors and we were unlikely to put him up for the all-out elections next year.
“We are a party of pavement politics but that’s not all you do as a politician. You have to come up with answers if you are the main opposition group.
“If you’re not going to do that, you may as well be a community activist.” The party had been buoyed by their narrow second place in the Warbreck by-election earlier this month and Cllr Kemp said the group’s momentum wouldn’t be stopped by the defection.
He said: “This won’t affect that, once we know how things sit with the boundary commission changes, we will have candidates in 25 wards that we think we’ll win. This isn’t going to stop us and we’re looking forward to next year’s elections.”
Liberal Party group leader Cllr Steve Radford was pleased to welcome his new colleague on board. He said: “It happened quickly.
“Alan has come to the end of a journey of having to vote against things he believes in. We were more than happy for him to join us and he already has good relations with our members.
“Alan just realised we are the genuine Liberals and that’s why he’s come on board. We’re delighted he has, he’s a really valuable councillor.”
