Today I spoke to the four new independent councillors at Fenland – all members of the ruling group until 12.20pm when their resignation letters were received by the Conservative Association locally.

The self styled ‘gang of four’ will now fight May’s elections as independents following a furious behind the scenes battle. The new independents include the Tory whip at Fenland Council, Cllr Mike Cornwell.

Angry Conservatives have begun expressing their views this afternoon both to me and on social media.

They claim “three of the four were sacked by the present leader for not doing their job” and another Tory councillor blamed all four for being part of a ruling group that could have stopped brown bin charges. Another blamed them for making parish councils pay for local street lighting “at a time, as we have discovered, when there was “£1m in council funds not doing anything”.