Calls have been made for West Dunbartonshire Council’s entire Labour group to quit after the party suddenly resigned its leadership at Wednesday’s full council meeting.

The shock announcement was made by the now former leader of the council, councillor Martin Rooney who also confirmed that those in senior positions would stand down with “immediate effect”.

The move was described by opposition councillors as “despicable and deplorable”.

Councillor Rooney said it was clear Labour no longer had a sufficient number of votes to get a budget through and that it was now up to the opposition to form an administration.

The decision came after a difficult week for the group which saw two of its members, councillors June McKay and Danny Lennie sit as independent councillors. 

During the meeting, the two former Labour councillors, voted in favour of SNP councillor Karen Murray Conaghan stepping into the role of Provost rather than Labour’s Depute Provost John Millar. 

The loss of two members from the group has brought Labour down from 12 out of 22 councillors to 10 – no longer a majority but still the largest party. 

Labour has now been accused of abandoning the people of Clydebank, Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven who voted for them with calls for all remaining members to resign fully from West Dunbartonshire Council. 

SNP councillor James McElhill said: “The Labour administration’s last-minute decision to resign is cowardly and deplorable.

"It’s a wanton neglect of the people that voted them into office that they have decided to walk away and abandon the people of Clydebank, Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven.

 “Their reasons are spurious. They had just won a vote 12-10, minutes before abandoning their duties.

"They just can’t handle democracy and have proven themselves to be incompetent.

“Obviously they have been hit with the reality of the new Labour Chancellor recently cutting public expenditure by £5.5 billion with a promise of more cuts to come in October. 

“They can’t justify abolishing the Winter Fuel Allowance for 10 million pensioners including hundreds in West Dunbartonshire and they are embarrassed by their new Labour Chancellor’s refusal to abolish the two-child benefit cap.

“They  should all resign from West Dunbartonshire Council with immediate effect.”

Independent councillor Jonathan McColl accused the now-former administration of having a “toddler temper tantrum” and “throwing their toys out the pram”.

Councillor McColl said that the budget was not being discussed on Wednesday evening.

He said: “The budget was not being discussed this evening, and they have not discussed any budget proposals with other councillors, so they cannot possibly know that [they would not get a budget passed].

“They didn’t even lose all the votes tonight. Of the 11 non-procedural items on the agenda, eight were agreed unanimously, two were won by the SNP and one was won by Labour.

"Out of 11 items, they got their way on nine of them, but have still had a meltdown.

“The truth is, Labour in West Dunbartonshire have decided they are not up for running a minority administration, as that would mean having to compromise and make agreements with other Councillors to get things through.

“I feel for their newer, first-term councillors, who have clearly been dragged into this pathetic display of toddler temper tantrums.

“Minority administrations are perfectly normal for councils. Majority rule is unhealthy and leads to bad decisions, which we’ve already seen this term from Labour when they had 12 seats.

“They are the largest party and have the political mandate and responsibility to govern.

They need to grow up and do their jobs, or resign from the council and let the public elect adults to replace them.”

Councillor Jim Bollan of the West Dunbartonshire Community Party said their excuses were pitiful as the budget process hasn’t even started yet.

He added: “The real reason behind Labour's resignation is they know there are deep cuts to public services and jobs coming down the pipeline next year from their own Labour Government and they don’t want to be seen to be implementing them, although they implemented around £38m of Tory induced cuts in the last two years in West Dunbartonshire which has caused havoc with our services.

“The reason for resignation they gave was a smokescreen, indicating they no longer had the votes to get their budget through. 

“The budget process has not even started yet so using this excuse is pitiful and exposes them.

"Labour has abandoned local people who elected them at a time when fighting cuts from the Central Government is paramount.”

Repeated attempts have been made to contact Councillor Rooney and members of the Labour Party, who have yet to explain their decision.