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A Tory peer appears to have suggested Labour is going to oust Theresa May and form the next government.

Lord Porter, who is the voice of hundreds of councils as chair of the Local Government Association (LGA), made the remarkable comment at the LGA's conference in Birmingham.

He said shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne will be "the next person coming in" after the Labour MP gave a speech to delegates on Thursday.

Lord Porter also revealed the "anger" at an "ill-judged" speech at the same conference by Mr Gwynne's Tory opposite Sajid Javid.

Mr Javid had been slammed two days earlier for warning of a "crisis of trust" in local government after the Grenfell Tower fire. One council leader, Newcastle's Nick Forbes, accused Mr Javid of "blame shifting" and said his speech "went down like a bucket of sick".

(Image: REUTERS)

Speaking after Labour's Mr Gwynne left the stage, Lord Porter told delegates: "It’s nice to know the next person coming in is going to look after you."

The quote was missing from a video feed, but reported by news outlets and confirmed as accurate by an LGA official.

Lord Porter added: "There was a lot of anger following Sajid’s speech. I think his comments were probably ill judged in parts of his speech."

Lord Porter said Mr Javid had helped councils in the past, adding: "At the moment he is the guy we have to work with".

But he said talking to Mr Javid after the speech was "worst conversation I’ve ever had with a Secretary of State".

Labour defied the polls and gained 30 seats in the general election.

A recent YouGov poll put Mr Corbyn's party 8 points ahead of the Conservatives but Labour is still 55 seats behind in the Commons.