Yesterday Mark Wallace reported on the hypocrisy of the Labour MPs denouncing zero hours contracts - while taking money from the Co-Operative Group which makes extensive use of such contracts.

There is a further hypocrisy involving Labour councils. Andy Sawford, the Labour MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire, says his private members bill would ban zero hours contracts. That would be a problem for Labour-run Corby Council which has 151 staff on such contracts.

Perhaps the Labour leader Ed Miliband might like to take the matter up with his local council, Labour-run Doncaster? They topped the league according to the recent IBT report with 2,759 staff on zero hours contracts.

Other Labour councils with high numbers mentioned by IBT were Preston with 175 and St Helens with 300.

There are some more examples from the BBC who carried out FOI requests to London councils. While Lib Dem-run Kingston had the highest ratio of staff on zero hours - with 37% - the runners up were both Labour councils: Merton has 14 per cent while Brent has 18 per cent.

I don't think zero hours contracts should be banned. As Nick de Bois has argued a better way is liberalise employment law so that better alternatives are more attractive.

If Labour disagree that they don't have to wait for a General Election. They can order their councils to cease providing them - as well as refusing to accept any more tainted money from the Co-Op.