A call has been made to Labour supporters who are outraged at the “anti-democratic” election of Ed Miliband as the new Leader of the Labour Party to switch to the Liberal Democrats and help to make sure that the Coalition Government deals with the country’s economic crisis while helping to offset the worst outcomes of the forthcoming public spending cuts.

The call has been made by Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester Bob Russell who said that Mr Ed Miliband had only been elected Labour Leader because of votes from Trade Unionists, when the majority of Labour Party members and MPs had voted for his older brother, Mr David Miliband MP.

“We have an astonishing situation whereby the winner in terms of popular support from members and MPs has been cheated because of Union votes,” said Bob Russell.

“That is not democratic. Therefore those Labour folk who believe in democracy would be better off supporting a party which is democratic.”

Bob Russell revealed that only 34 members of the Colchester Labour Party had voted for Ed Miliband, whereas 61 had wanted Mr David Miliband to be the new Labour Leader. Out of the 211 Party members, many of whom did not bother to vote, 21 chose Mr Ed Balls MP, 16 for Diane Abbott MP and 13 for Andy Burnham MP.

He recalled: “When Mr David Miliband visited Colchester as part of his Leadership bid he was welcomed to the town as ‘the next Leader of the Labour Party’. Clearly Mr Ed Miliband is not the choice of Labour in Colchester.”

Bob Russell added: “After Labour’s 13 years in power, the gap between rich and poor widened and 3.9 million children were left living below the official poverty line. Of the forthcoming public spending cuts, 75% of them are Labour’s cuts and would have happened if we had a Labour Government.”