LIB DEM MP Tessa Munt faced union fury yesterday after posing for a selfie with aggrieved firefighters before voting against the scrapping of hated pension scheme changes.

Ms Munt told union activists she was “supportive of their cause” — but yesterday she said she could not vote for a motion to annul the new pension plan for English firefighters without resigning as an adviser to Business Secretary Vince Cable.

Under government proposals firefighters will be expected to pay more into their pension pot and retire five years later.

Labour had initiated an early day motion in Parliament calling for the scheme to be axed and on Monday the party pushed for a Commons vote.

Firefighter and Fire Brigades Union branch chair Neil Punt, said that his MP had not made clear that she would vote against their cause — which Ms Munt denies.

“We’ve met Tessa on several occasions, and she’s always offered her support, or paid lip-service really, but she’s never said she couldn’t do anything for us,” Mr Punt said.

“The last time I met her was about two weeks ago. We provided her with all the literature saying why we’re fighting for our pensions. We showed her our pay, we produced all the facts. She said: ‘I agree, I think it’s wrong, blah blah blah.’ That was when we took the photo.

“She said that because she was a frontline coalition MP that she couldn’t put her name to the early day motion, but she never said to me that she couldn’t vote one way or the other. If she’d be more upfront and said: ‘I agree with you but could never vote for that,’ then maybe I’d understand.”

Commenting on her decision to pose for a selfie, a spokesman for Ms Munt said: “She could have said no, but she said yes.”

He said the photograph was “not a public statement,” and that Ms Munt had made it clear she could not vote for the Labour motion. 

“She didn’t want to resign over this issue,” he said.