REFERENDUM row Councillor Vaughan Jones has quit Labour — meaning the party has lost overall control of the council.

The Telegraph exclusively revealed last month that Cllr Jones was voting yes in the independence referendum and ever since then speculation has been mounting about her political future.

It’s now been confirmed that she has decided to become an independent councillor in her Inverclyde South ward.

The decision means Labour are now a minority administration, occupying nine of the 20 seats in the council chamber.

Labour have indicated that they will make an announcement about the running of the local authority after this week’s referendum takes place.

They could be set to form an alliance in the wake of Cllr Jones’ departure from the ranks, but the prospect of any deal with the opposition SNP group looks to be off the table.

SNP group leader Councillor Chris McEleny told the Telegraph that he had offered to meet local authority leader Stephen McCabe and discuss an arrangement but the suggestion was snubbed.

Cllr McEleny said: “As Labour in Inverclyde have lost their majority I offered on Friday to meet with the leader of the council.

“It was my aim to discuss how we can ensure that we have a competent administration in place to ensure that the people of Inverclyde get what’s best for them.

“Unfortunately council leader Stephen McCabe has refused to meet with me.” He added: “It seems that the leader of the Labour party and no campaign in Inverclyde would rather enter into a coalition with the Conservatives and Lib Dems — the very parties of the Westminster coalition imposing cuts being felt in Inverclyde — than speak with the SNP.

“The SNP group will continue to keep the door open for any discussions that will benefit Inverclyde.” Councillor McCabe said today that Cllr Jones’ decision ‘did not come as a surprise’.

He said: “We have been anticipating for some time that this would happen.

“We believe that her decision has been deliberately timed for now to cause maximum damage to the Labour Party in the midst of the referendum campaign.” The council chief said there was no truth in the rumour that Cllr Jones had quit before being ousted.

He said: “That’s not the case. The Labour Party and the Labour group has respected her decision entirely in terms of the referendum and members of the Labour Party are perfectly free to vote as they see fit “There was no issue as regards her position to the referendum and there was no action pending against her. It’s been entirely her own decision.”