Aren’t the Brit Liberals equivalent (or close to) Conservatives back in the states?
No, but they are not as socialist (at least relatively speaking) as the term would imply in the US. Labor is the truly left wing party - the Liberal Democrats (as they now are) have centrists through to the centre left - they try to occupy a middle ground between the conservatives and Labor.
(In Australia, where I live, the Liberal Party is the major conservative party and comes from the same tradition of British Liberalism as the Liberal Democrats in the US, but here, we've stayed closer to its roots, while in England, it's gradually shifted leftwards).
From my perspective, as a conservative (and I do have dual British/Australian citizenships), Labor are the enemy. The Liberal Democrats are people I'd be willing to work with against Labor - but knowing there are times they might be willing to work with Labor against us. And, to some extent, this reflects the current governmental situation in Britain with its coalition government - a Conservative/LibDem coalition is a better situation than a Labor/LibDem coalition and far better than an outright Labor government - but nowhere near as good as an outright Conservative government could be (if it let itself be itself and stopped pandering.)