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Simon Slater, also a councillor on Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, told The Silhillian he had become ‘progressively disillusioned’ with the coalition Government.
He finished third at the May vote with 9,278 to Conservative MP Caroline Spelman’s winning 26,956 votes.
Mr Slater, below, said of the Lib Dems: “They have sold out to the Conservatives.”
He said: “What they do in the coalition Government and their policies for the last for or five years, there has been a massive change.”
He said the Government’s widespread public sector cuts and the raising of VAT to 20 per cent were key factors in his decision.
Mr Slater said: “It seems to have come in from the Conservatives – it wasn’t in the Liberal Democrats’ election campaign.
“The Lib Dems nationally don’t really seem to be following the principles and manifesto they set out.”
In an article for The Silhillian ahead of the election, Mr Slater made pledges including ‘fairer taxes that put money back in your pocket’ and an end to tuition fees.
He said today: “I have been at party conferences and heard Lib Dems and they have spent most of their speech attacking the Conservatives, probably sometimes too vehemently.
“It seems very strange they have changed their minds so quickly.”
He said he gave the coalition a chance but was ‘always somewhat cynical’.
Labour ‘had it’s failings’ in Government but ‘we would be in a better position with a Labour Government than a Conservative Government’ he said.
Mr Slater praised ‘fantastic’ Solihull Lib Dem MP, who narrowly kept the seat from the Tories in May and has embraced the coalition. Mr Slater said she is in a ‘difficult position’.
He said his defection was ‘very amicable’ on the council, already run as a coalition between the Lib Dem and Labour.
“The council will continue to work as a progressive partnershiop with Labour and the Lib Dems.”
Council and Lib Dem leader Cllr Ian Hedley was not available for comment.
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