Former Sandwell Council leader believes ousting could be part of plot against Labour leader Tom Watson

Steve Eling was suspended by the regional Labour group before councillors chose a new leader to replace him last week. Councillor Eling has insisted he has not been told why he was suspended.

His departure has come amid further turmoil at the authority, which has been rocked by allegations over corruption in recent years. Both the mayor and deputy mayor have also been deselected.

Councillor Eling, who has denied any wrongdoing, said he had been "knifed in the back" and claimed it was no coincidence councillors were being deselected in Mr Watson's constituency. The deputy has angered allies of Jeremy Corbyn by criticising the party leadership over its handling of anti-Semitism.

Councillor Eling told BBC Sunday Politics Midlands: "Tom Watson's constituency is here, the actions he's taking are proving quite controversial, particularly in terms of his relationship with the General Secretary (Jennie Formby). I'm aware that the General Secretary has intervened in relation to my case, I've seen an email that confirms that, so I don't think there's any coincidence there between the blow up at the national level and what's been inflicted on us here."

Conservative MP for Halesowen and Rowley Regis, James Morris, who was a fierce critic of Councillor Eling and had called on him to quit, said he feared not a lot would change under the new council leader Steve Trow.

Mr Morris said: "My concern is the election of Councillor Trow is a bit like a minor shuffling of the cards. He was a very close ally of Steve Eling who presided over a very dark period in the history of Sandwell Council with lots of different allegations and I think Councillor Trow does need to make some really quite big decisions in order to make quite big reforms in Sandwell Council and I'm not really convinced he is going to do that."

Councillor Trow said: "We have some big ideas and we are going to be moving forward with those at pace. I have had experience of being a cabinet member, under Steve Eling's leadership, whether that counts as some kind of disqualification for then taking on the leadership myself he (Mr Morris) would have to explain that to me.

"There has, historically, been very serious issues. We're talking about issues that were investigated three years ago, this is historic stuff."