A council leader was told to stop wasting police time by repeatedly complaining about a blogger who said that corruption at the authority was widespread.

Steve Eling, Labour leader of Sandwell council, was rebuffed by a police chief after calling for the “immediate arrest” of Julian Saunders. In one email, Mr Eling said that if the blogger was not arrested and charged, West Midlands police would be “in contempt” and it would become a “matter for the home secretary”.

After Mr Eling told officers to “take some responsibility” for the blogs and tweets, Chief Superintendent Richard Baker told him that senior detectives had spent a disproportionate amount of time on the allegations and the force would not investigate further unless a criminal threshold was met.