LEADERS of three of Liverpool’s political parties united to plead with the government to rethink its £100m funding cut.

Council leader Joe Anderson and his deputy, Paul Brant, opposition leader Warren Bradley and Green Party Leader Sarah Jennings took part in a 30-minute conference call with local government minister Andrew Stunell yesterday..

They told Mr Stunell, a Lib-Dem, of their “grave concerns” about the £100m cut in Whitehall grants in the next two years.

Combined with additional spending pressures, the cut means the city has to save £141m between now and 2013 – £91m in 2011/12 alone.

The three party leaders are working together on a joint budget. In a statement last night they said: “We have explained to the minister in no uncertain terms the huge difficulties we face in Liverpool in meeting the scale of the budget challenge.

“We are not asking for special favours. We are not asking for special treatment. We are not even asking to be spared from all the cuts.

“All we are asking is for fairness and for the government to consider phasing the reduction to minimise the impact on services.”

The leaders highlighted how Liverpool had also been badly affected by the scrapping of Building Schools for the Future and the Housing Market Renewal Initiative, and were already making huge cuts in bureaucracy to mitigate the impact on front line services.