PRIME Minister Theresa May has been asked to intervene in the growing row over a controversial restructuring of Lancashire County Council’s top management team.

Last month the authority’s Tory leader Geoff Driver proposed a streamlining which would have left current chief executive Jo Turton out of a job.

The scheme was dropped temporarily on legal advice but was due to be revived at a special ‘urgency committee’ of the full council on Thursday.

That was suddenly cancelled, leading Labour group leader and Nelson East councillor Azhar Ali, who has previously asked Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid to intervene, to write to Mrs May.

He told her: “Lancashire County Council is one of the largest authorities in the country and is facing significant challenges due to cuts to budgets and rising demand particularly around adult social care.

“Many senior Conservative councillors have approached me deeply concerned and want an end to this chaos.

“I would ask that you personally intervene as Prime Minister in order to prevent further paralysis of services across the authority and help mitigate against the risk of losing investment across Lancashire putting hundreds of new jobs at risk.”

Cllr Driver is on bail after being arrested ‘on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and witness intimidation’ pending further investigations as part of the long-running One Connect inquiry into county council contracts’. An LCC spokesman declined to comment.