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 last week 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.

Coun Hussain won the election with a 685-vote majority, two years after losing the seat to the Conservatives.

Postal voting has been available to everyone in the borough since 2001 and the Bastwell ward had a 55 per cent return at the election, the highest in the borough.

The alterations in postal voting laws were introduced by Blackburn MP Jack Straw while he was Home Secretary.

Today, Coun Taylor said: "A lengthy meeting was held on Friday with Coun Hussain, which also involved the deputy leaders and the group whip.

"As a result of that meeting, Coun Hussain has decided to suspend himself from the Labour group until the outcome of these investigations. This action in no way should act to imply any wrongdoing. His status as a member of the Labour Party is a separate matter, which has to be dealt with by the party."

Coun Maureen Bateson, chairman of the Blackburn constituency Labour Party, said: "These are very serious allegations but, as yet, nobody has been found guilty of any offence.

"The right to vote is a basic right and one that the Labour Party will always hold at the centre of everything it does.

"All party members know that to interfere with that would result in the severest punishment possible."