Ousted Wirral Lib Dem leader Simon Holbrook says he has no regrets about Conservative and Labour coalitions

May 11 2011 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

OUSTED Lib Dem leader Simon Holbrook said he had no regrets after losing his council seat to Labour.

He said it could take his party 10 years to recover from their local election nightmare after Paul Doughty took the Prenton council seat he had held for 12 years with a majority of 1157.

In a candid interview with the News minutes after losing his seat, the former deputy council leader admitted: “I knew I was going to lose from the minute the first ballot box was opened.

“It’s extremely disappointing. The moment it was opened I could see how people had voted.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be our night at that point.”

Mr Holbrook said he had no regrets about forming coalitions with first Labour and then, last year, the Conservatives but added: “It's always easier with hindsight to say what you would or wouldn't have done. But It's difficult to put any gloss on a set of results as bad as this.

“I felt we’d been working locally with Labour for three years and in many ways that had come to a natural end with the General Election result.

“We did consider very carefully this time last year whether we should join with the Conservatives or whether we should support a minority administration.

“I think we came to the view at that time that the scale of local government change was going to be so big that to have the instability of a minority administration in Wirral would have been just too much.”

He said he was proud his party had helped run the council in “the most difficult financial circumstances local government has had to face”.

And in a side swipe at Labour he added: “I think there’s a strong element of protest voting.

“It seems perverse to me that the party that has created the national financial crisis should be the party that then benefits from it by way of protest votes.

“All of my colleagues have fought a positive campaign, standing on our record as hard-working local councillors.”

Mr Holbrook said he now planned to concentrate on his career in the Environment Agency but would not rule out a return to politics – possibly in 2014.

He said: “It’s been a privilege to be a councillor for Prenton and to have led the Liberal Democrats group.

“I would particularly like to thank those people who have stuck with us as we have attempted to do difficult things in difficult times.

“I’m not anticipating standing next year but who knows? Maybe the next opportunity will be 2014.”