Liverpool council leader Joe Anderson and Unison join forces to oppose public sector cuts

LIVERPOOL council’s new leader Joe Anderson and union chief Dave Prentis yesterday joined forces to campaign for the threatened £451m scheme to rebuild the Royal Liverpool Hospital.

Mr Prentis, general secretary of Unison, met the Labour leader yesterday to discuss looming public sector cuts.

The pair said it was vital the new Liberal Democrat Conservative coalition sought alternative approaches to reduce the nation’s deficit than merely cutting public sector jobs and projects like the proposed revamp of the Royal.

“We are supporting the campaign for the Royal,” said Mr Prentis.

“If it is scrapped, it will affect private sector jobs far more than public service jobs. The message that we want to get across is that if you start cutting expenditure and jobs the services will deteriorate, but there will also be other knock on effects.

“For every £1 a local government worker in Liverpool earns, they spend 70p in Liverpool itself. If that money stops, then you will see small businesses going bankrupt as well.”