Recently Liverpool Lib Dem Councillors elected Carl Cashman as their group leader to replace Richard Kemp who stood down after the May elections.

The Liverpool Echo recently did a profile of the 31 year old mortgage broker who has said that he wants the Lib Dems to appeal to the whole city, not just the suburbs:

“I want to dispel this idea that if you are from a council estate or a poorer background then it is the Labour Party that you naturally identify with. The Lib Dems aren’t just here for the leafy suburbs, we are here for the whole city.

He added:

I think for too long the Lib Dems haven’t been speaking to the entire city. We have done well in the south but we’ve got to win in other parts of the city and that victory in Waterfront South, our first in a city centre ward was really important. We won that through hard work and speaking in a way people understand.

He talked about his relative youth and how Labour Councillors have tried to use it against him:

“I would be lying if I said it won’t be difficult to balance my life, my full-time job and the leadership role, but I think the advantage is that I am a normal person. Normal people have full time jobs, kids, dogs, they have full lives and I think its good to be taken out of the politics bubble and to realise what everyone is going through.

“I think we have often had councillors and leaders who are retired but I think having a full time worker can recognise the issues people face day in day out.”

He adds: “At the annual meeting, three Labour councillors walked past me and said ‘aren’t you young’, I can take it on the chin but I do think part of it was trying to get in my head. I see my age as an advantage, I can identify with people of all ages. In terms of where the Lib Dems go from here, it needs new ideas and fresh energy.

You can read the whole profile here.

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