So this is what happened at Westmorland and Furness when Liberal Democrats tabled a motion on the cost of living crisis.

'Dismay' after Tory councillors desert meeting during cost of living discussion https://t.co/mKYPHxYaVo

— Tim Farron (@timfarron) September 29, 2022

The motion was passed and fully supported by all the remaining councillors.

Tim commented:

Our country is facing the biggest cost of living crisis in a generation – politicians of all stripes need to work together.

For Conservative councillors to abandon the meeting is an appalling dereliction of duty and sadly shows how out of touch their party is with the needs of people in Westmorland, Furness and Eden.

The Conservative Group explained that “the meeting had exceeded its time limit and the chair had invited members of the group to leave the meeting which they did due to having other commitments.” Strange then that it didn’t apply to all the other councillors.

The Westmorland and Furness Shadow Authority has 36 Liberal Democrats, 15 Labour, 11 Conservatives, 2 Independents and 1 Green.

* Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online.