Sector figures have been lobbied to withdraw engagement and co-operation with the local government watchdog after a national newspaper used its data to rank councils, The MJ understands.

Amid the fallout from The Times story, Local Government Association (LGA) chief executive Joanna Killian is among those to have been urged by a number of angry council chiefs to halt any collaboration with the Office for Local Government (Oflog) after it failed to publicly rebut last week's controversial article.