Lee Anderson called for fat cats on Birmingham City Council to be "sacked" amid the bin strikes. The ongoing strikes have seen 17,000 tonnes of waste pile up uncollected around Birmingham and complaints of rats.

The Reform UK MP told GB News: "Since we got back to Parliament, I've asked loads of questions in there and I've never had a straight answer yet. Look at this council - you've got a council leader earning £71,000 a year, you've got a chief executive earning £260,000 a year, you've got a council that's £3billion in debt - and what are the taxpayers in Birmingham getting?

"They've got 17,000 tonnes of rubbish on their street, they've got rats the size of cats patrolling the streets, they've taken over the city, and one of these rats has attacked a resident in Birmingham. It's simply not good enough.

"These people are running this council, the wage bill for the council alone, I think it's to £2.3million a year.

"I've got a simple solution: sack some of these councillors, half their pay, and give that to the bin men."

Birmingham City Council earlier this week declared a major incident over the impact of the walk outs.

Members of the Unite union in Birmingham are holding an all-out strike in a long-running dispute, after the scrapping of waste collection and recycling officer roles.

The council says daily blocking of its depots by pickets has meant workers cannot get their vehicles out to collect waste.

It said declaring a major incident will initially increase the availability of street cleansing and fly-tip removal, with an additional 35 vehicles and crews around the city.

It will also allow the council to explore what further support is available from neighbouring authorities and the Government, to help manage the situation, and work with partners to better manage health and fire risks that the build-up of rubbish is causing.

But Unite general secretary Sharon Graham pledged to "defend Birmingham's refuse workforce to the hilt" and urged the council "to rethink this disastrous strategy".