Kay Mason Billig said her Conservative council was pulling out of Labour's much-vaunted reorganisation of local councils and the creation of mayor for the region.

In an explosive speech at County Hall, she described Steve Reed, the secretary of state for local government who yesterday reversed his earlier decision to cancel this May's council elections, as a "two-faced bully" and a "bastard".

Norfolk County Council leader Kay Mason Billig (Image: Denise Bradley)

"I can tell you today that devolution and LGR [local government reform] are off," she said.

She said Mr Reed's decision to reinstate the elections - after a legal challenge by Reform threatened to rule their cancellation as unlawful - left her council with no time to complete the legal process to formally create the new regional authority which would replace it.

She added: “We cannot consent to a new statutory instrument that is necessary to set up our mayoral county combined authority in the months before our elections. So that’s it. 

"Ten years of work potentially down the pan as a result of this incompetent government."

The U-turn has left the government in a fresh crisis and led to calls for Mr Reed to resign.

Local government secretary Steve Reed (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)

Ms Mason Billig did not hold back in her assessment of the minister.

She went on: “I can now say what I like about the secretary of state, I've never met him or spoken to him but I know him to be a two-faced bully who doesn't care about Norfolk, who doesn't care about local government, who doesn't even care about his own Labour councillors.”

She referenced the character played by the late comedian Rik Mayall’s in The New Statesmen, saying : "I’d really like to quote Rik Mayall at this point, what an utter, utter B-A-S-T-A-R-D.”

Ms Mason Billig has faced criticism over her attitude to cancelling elections, which ministers had suggested to clear the path for local government reform.

While she declined to explicitly call for a postponement, during a government consultation on the issue, she also did not speak in support of the elections going ahead.

Instead, she warned that if they did, it could threaten the proposals to devolve powers to local councils and for the government's plans to abolish and replace all eight of Norfolk's councils.

However, at Wednesday's combustible meeting, she laid the blame squarely at Mr Reed's feet.

Council chaos as County Hall announced local government reorganisation is OFF (Image: Mike Page)

Mrs Mason Billig alleged that Mr Reed had threatened Norfolk's access to funding and new devolved powers unless she agreed to a delay.

“Steve Reed made threats - not to my face, but through various back channels,” she said.

“I was left in no doubt that if we wanted the money and powers for devolution, then this council would have to agree to the postponements and deliver LGR.”

She said she had refused to formally request a postponement but had been forced to agree not to push for elections in order to secure Norfolk's place on the government's Devolution Priority Programme - the fast-track scheme that was supposed to deliver a new combined authority and elected mayor for Norfolk and Suffolk by 2026.

“I cannot tell you how awful the last few months have been and the pressure that has been put on this council to comply with the government or face losing the improvements in funding that we fought so hard for. But it doesn't matter any more, does it.”

The dramatic announcement follows years of debate, budgeting and preparation ahead of local government reorganisation. 

The shake-up, which will see Norfolk's seven district councils’ absorbed into larger unitary models, was expected to be confirmed by the government this year, and come into action by 2028.

Norfolk County Council had championed a single-council model, projecting savings of nearly £40 million a year. Other authorities wanted two or three unitaries.

However Ms Mason Billig’s shock announcement has now thrown the entire plan into uncertainty. 

She added: ”Under this government we were told that as a consequence we had to cooperate on LGR. Well, devo hasn't happened.

"The contract is broken, so I can tell you this morning that the Conservative group will not be assisting this government with LDR.

“I don't believe we have ever truly trusted this government to deliver on anything, because they just break their promises time and again , they always let us down.

“We will fight this election, and the Conservatives will stand on our excellent record on administration.

© Eastern Daily Press