LABOUR is poised to hold on to power on Blackburn with Darwen Council after six rebel councillors pledged to vote in their former colleagues.

And the newly formed independent group called for the Labour Party to hold an inquiry into the row which caused them to quit just days after the local elections.

Yusuf Jan-Virmani (Audley), Iftakhar Hussain (Bastwell), Parwaiz Akhtar (Bastwell), Mahfooz Hussain (Bastwell), Salim Mulla (Queen's Park) and Faryad Hussain (Queen's Park) have rejected advances from Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to form a coalition which would have ousted Labour for the first time in 21 years.

Their backing will mean Labour (27 seats) will retain control at the council despite having fewer councillors than the Conservatives (17 seats) and LibDems (12 seats).

But it remains to be seen if they will use the balance of power to vote against Labour on key issues in the future.

LibDem leader Paul Browne, who earlier claimed the six would help his party form a coalition to take control of the council, blasted the six yesterday after learning they were backing Labour.

Labour leader Kate Hollern said they defected after a decision was taken not to allow Coun Mahfooz Hussain back on to the ruling executive committee.

But the six have always denied this. Despite never giving a full explanation, they claim part of their reason for walking was that they felt some within the party blamed them for the loss of former leader Sir Bill Taylor's seat in Audley, a predominantly Asian ward.

A statement released by the six said: "Our disagreement which led to our resignation from the Labour group is internal to the group.

"We were not happy with some of the comments that were being made within the group. We felt we were not being treated fairly by some of the local Labour activists."

The independents insist Labour has apologised to them and that following a weekend meeting with Blackburn MP Jack Straw, Lord Adam Patel and senior Labour councillors a review is going to be held.

The six also said they would back Labour tonight because they felt they had an obligation to the people who voted for them.

The statement added: "We stood on a Labour programme and undertook to carry it through.

It is for that reason we shall be supporting the formation of a Labour administration tonight."

Coun Hollern was unavailable for comment.