WARRING WORDS between councillors have risen over the fallout to local government after the nation’s Brexit decision.

Leader of Waltham Forest council, Chris Robbins, said his Labour party is “continuing to encroach” on Chingford’s “conservative territory” in the early hours of Friday (June 24), while at the EU referendum count.

Cllr Robbins, of Grove Green ward, made the claim in Walthamstow Town Hall while Remain were ahead and before Leave took and unassailable lead in the race to Brexit.

The Labour councillor went on to say the Conservative vote has “wobbled substantially after it looked like Chingford had recorded a “substantial number of remains”.

Leader of Waltham Forest’s Conservatives, Matt Davis, has since hit back at Cllr Robbins, calling his claim a “little fantasy”.

He said: “The result has been bad for London Labour. Barking and Dagenham voted Leave overall and that’s a safe Labour borough.

“What the results prove is you can’t extrapolate anything party political from the referendum.

“For Chris to suggest there were a fair number of Remain voters in Chingford, doesn’t mean anything. It’s a little fantasy.

“If that’s true I look forward to meeting the new Conservative MP for Sunderland, and for that matter, the one in Barking and Dagenham too.”

The council leader also admitted if Brexit did happen there would be a “major crisis in local government”.

He added: “There’s no doubt if we would have exited there would have been a massive attack on local government finance.

“Our financial plans for the next three years are as stable as they can be. They’re not good but at least we know where they are going. If we would have gone into Brexit all bets would have been off.”

The Chingford Green councillor quickly put down the leader’s claim and said he “has no idea about the effect to the economy in general or local government finance”.

He added: “The statement is a further instalment of the dishonest tales everyone on both sides has been telling all the way through this referendum.”

The council leader was contacted for a post-Brexit response.