A Councillor arrested as part of a police investigation into alleged vote-rigging has quit Blackburn with Darwen Council's ruling Labour Group.

Council leader Bill Taylor e-mailed the council's 37 Labour councillors to say that Bastwell councillor Mohammed Hussain had decided to "suspend himself" from the group until the outcome of the inquiry was known.

He will attend meetings as an independent councillor and will not receive any Labour group information, even though he remains a member of the Labour Party.

Coun Hussain was the seventh person to be arrested and quizzed over allegations that the 2002 Bastwell election was rigged in his favour.

Detectives began the probe after the borough's Conservatives made a complaint before the election that people, believed to be Labour activists, had collected unopened postal votes from houses in the area.