Town hall drama as Labour scrapes back into power

As strong insults flew across the council chamber, five of the six rebels who broke away from Labour performed another U-turn to vote them back in.

But politicians warned after last night's full council meeting that the borough faces future chaos after the six said they would still remain as Independents.

LibDem leader Paul Browne called the six rebels "the scum of the earth" and said the situation had been a "farce."

Ousted former leader Sir Bill Taylor and new mayor David Foster warned the Labour regime that the confusion would continue as Labour still didn't have an overall majority.

Despite voting for Labour rule at last night's full council, uncertainty remains over whether the independent rebels will vote against the party on key issues - thrusting the council into chaos once more.

Asked after the meeting if they would veto Labour policy, Coun Iftakahr Hussain said yes, Coun Parwaiz Akhtar said maybe and Coun Mahfooz Hussain said he would look at every decision on its own merits.

Tory leader Coun Colin Rigby, who came close to snatching power from Labour for the first time in 21 years through a coalition deal with the independents and LibDems, missed the meeting as he was on holiday.

Labour insisted no deals had been done and a motion was passed asking the borough's two MPs to raise the matter at Westminster in a bid to prevent councillors jumping ship in the future.

Labour leader Kate Hollern, whose party received 31 over the opposition's 28, said: "Certain members have acted disgracefully and not many people come out of this with any credit.

"The naked ambition of the opposition members held no boundaries. The talking now has to stop. The people of this borough voted for a Labour council and I am pleased and relieved they have one."

Parwaiz Akhtar (Bastwell), Mahfooz Hussain (Bastwell), Iftakhar Hussain (Bastwell), Yusuf Jan-Virmani (Audley), Salim Mull (Queen's Park) and Faryad Hussain (Queen's Park) walked away from Labour shortly after the elections and became independents. But all except Coun Faryad Hussain voted for their former colleagues last night - he insisted he would remain a "true" independent.

Sir Bill, a guest at the meeting and annual mayor-making, said afterwards: "I am now glad there has been an outbreak of common sense but I am still sure that the waters are not completely calm. The dust has not settled yet."

Coun Foster added: "We have had exciting times in the past two weeks and there are exciting times still to come."

Coun Yusuf Jan-Virmani, who was also voted in as deputy mayor, confirmed that Blackburn MP Jack Straw had been the "main man" in getting the defectors to side with Labour. Tory councillor Michael Lee said: "It's good that our Foreign Secretary turned his back on the crisis in Iraq to sort out the mess in Blackburn."

None of the independents gave full explanation for their actions.

Labour had blamed a row over the selection of members for the ruling executive board and said the six walked after it was revealed Mahfooz Hussain was not to be returned as education spokesman.

The six denied this. They said part of the reason for the resignations was that some Labour members blamed them for the loss of Sir Bill Taylor's Audley seat - a ward filled with Asian voters.

Coun Browne revealed how the six had offered his LibDem party a coalition with the Conservatives.

He said: "After their resignations I wanted to form an administration for this borough. I listened to them and they told me and my group they would never join the Labour group again. They said they had ripped up their membership cards and they would never vote for them again."

Conservative Coun Fred Slater said: "I suspect that one or two of the defectors have either been threatened in some way or they have been given their 30 pieces of silver after all. They ha ve brought disgrace on themselves and the council and the irreparable damage has been done to the democratic process."

Mahfooz Hussain said he and his fellow defectors had declined a link-up with the Conservatives and LibDems because they did not feel the opposition groups were capable of running the borough.

He added: "They don't have the capability to run this council. When we looked at what was on offer we did not think they could take this borough forward.

"It is in the best interests of this borough that we voted with Labour."

Jack Straw said: "I fulfilled by responsibilities at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office but thought it was important to help resolve this issue for the people of the borough. Everyone involved in this are all long standing friends of mine."

Darwen MP Janet Anderson said: "Let us all hope that now everybody can get on with implementing the policies endorsed by the people of Blackburn and Darwen at the election. It is important that everyone now pulls together."