LIVERPOOL Liberal Democrats will tonight elect their first ever female party leader.

Acting leader Flo Clucas and the party's regeneration spokesman Cllr Paula Keaveney will be the only candidates in the ballot.

Senior Lib-Dem Cllr Richard Kemp, one of only two councillors due for re-election to survive Thursday night's electoral bloodbath, has decided not to stand.

The contest is expected to be close run and Whoever wins will have the task of motivating the city's Lib-Dems after their worst council election result for 20 years, that saw them lose 11 of 13 seats they were defending. Some of the party's biggest names including former council leader Lord Mike Storey and Paul Clein lost their seats in the poll.

The party's misery was compounded on Friday when Cllr Sharon Green defected and became an independent councillor.

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”CHANGE there has to be if the warnings from tonight are to be heeded,” wrote Flo Clucas in an email to Liberal Democrats in the early hours of Friday morning.

”The national situation, the local picture with Labour on the rise and some home-grown problems that made us almost unelectable, have tonight taken their toll,” she continued.

The local party’s problems are well documented.