LIBERAL Democrats in Wirral have been accused of using tax-payers’ money in a bid to poach Labour councillors from their former coalition partners.

A letter signed by the Lib-Dem leader Simon Holbrook and his deputy Gill Gardiner went out in a council mail run to newly-elected Labour councillors, urging them to defect.

In their letter, which follows the election of Ed Miliband as Labour leader, Cllrs Holbrook and Gardiner said the Lib- Dems were currently making the “tough but necessary decisions” on the economy, and Labour is now “sidelined to the wilderness for a generation” and called on the councillors to “discuss in confidence” how they can help the Lib-Dem cause.

But a reply sent by the Labour leadership, on behalf of the councillors targeted, accused the Lib-Dems of being “the lackeys of the Tory Party, helping to deliver the agenda of the extreme right wing of the Conservatives”.

It said: “By getting into bed with the Tories, both nationally and here in Wirral, the Liberal Democrats have shown that they are only interested in power. On Wirral, this has been highlighted by the fact you actually jumped straight from a coalition with Labour to a coalition with the Tories, reversing your policies and beliefs even as you jumped.”