Commissioners will be sent in to Liverpool City Council after an independent inquiry found serious mismanagement and a dysfunctional culture, communities secretary Robert Jenrick has told Parliament.

The secretary of state vowed to mend the 'rotten culture’ but he stopped short of a full takeover of the authority for now.

Mr Jenrick claimed a report on the council ‘paints a deeply concerning picture of mismanagement, the breakdown of scrutiny and accountability, a dysfunctional culture, putting the spending of public funds at risk and undermining the city’s economic development’.