Rotherham Council chief Martin Kimber quits

Mr Kimber, who joined the council in 2009, has agreed with the acting leader of the council, Cllr Paul Lakin, that he will resign in December.

It comes almost two weeks after the council was heavily criticised in Prof Alexis Jay’s inquriy report, which found an estimated 1,400 children were sexually exploited by men mainly of Pakistani heritage between 1997 and 2013

Mr Kimber told the Press in the wake of the report's publication that he was "part of the solution, not part of the problem".

But by today he had changed his mind, saying in a statement: "The council has now decided what it must do to give the best possible protection for the children and young people of Rotherham.

“I believe that new leadership will enable the town to recover more quickly from the events of the last two weeks, and strongly signal a new beginning at this critical time in its recovery.

“The time is therefore now right for me to leave.”