THE Liberal Democrats must not join with a "rotting" Labour party in government unless forced to in order to oust the Tories, a leading North-West activist has told the party leadership.

Tony Greaves said that any talk of voluntarily linking up with a majority Labour government would be electoral suicide.

Addressing a fringe meeting at the Brighton Liberal Democrat conference he claimed that while Labour had moved to the right of his party, it remained untrustworthy.

The Pendle District and Lancashire County Councillor said: "The Labour Party is always letting you down and when it is not letting you down it is putting the knife in.

"It is the nature of the party. It is the culture of the party."

Labour had changed into a right wing grouping commanded by Tony Blair and a small caucus of aides, he said.

Coun Greaves said on Pendle council he now found himself in the unusual position of being criticised from the right by Labour councillors - sometimes for policies that had backed weeks before until they found a group of residents opposed to them. He said that speed of change had left many Labour activists disillusioned and that half the Labour councillors in Pendle had just given up.

He said: "Labour is rotting from within." Coun Greaves attacked the party leadership for not holding an open conference debate on links with Labour.

He warned against accepting Cabinet posts in a majority Labour government as some pundits had floated.

Such a move would split the party and cause a massive row probably destroying it in the long run as the Liberal Democrats were dragged down with Labour when it entered its traditional mid-term tailspin.

A party independent of an unpopular Labour government would win Parliamentary by-elections and gain control of major city councils like Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield as it built up new strongholds in urban England.

But this would be destroyed by an unnecessary Lib-Lab pact which he said would be "voluntary euthanasia".

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