A spat has broken out after Labour councillors were denied leadership roles on borough council committees.

Despite a pre-election agreement, Tory and UKIP members of Great Yarmouth Borough Council blocked Labour's bids at a special meeting this week to elect a council leader and committee chairmen.

Two weeks ago, Labour were pushed into third place for the first time, with 11 seats, after UKIP gained four, at the local elections. The Conservatives have 14 seats making them the biggest party, and there are two independents.

Leader of the Labour group, Cllr Trevor Wainwright, said: 'Tory and UKIP councillors formed an alliance to deny the Labour group of any chairs or vice chairs on the new committees set up after the borough council moved from the cabinet system to the committee system, something which the Labour group supported.

'As the council is now finely balanced, it was agreed prior to the meeting the chairs and vice chairs of the committees would be split equitably, but at the last minute an amendment from UKIP and supported by the Tories saw this agreement in tatters, and the Labour group received nothing.

'It just goes to show if you vote UKIP you get Tory, and if you vote Tory you get UKIP.'

Cllr Kay Grey, leader of the UKIP group, said: 'At the moment they are the third party, at some point that will change depending of what residents vote at the time. That is politics.

'We were the third largest party last year and only had one chair then. Labour have an equal number of people on each committee as us. At least the smaller parties like UKIP and Labour have a voice with this system.

'We should be able to work together in the best interests of the borough. The most important thing for me is that residents get a well-run council.'

The newly re-elected council leader, Cllr Graham Plant, who is also leader of the Conservative group, said: 'There was an agreement before the meeting and it was broken.

'At the end of the day this is the system that Labour voted in. They said it would be more democratic, transparent and open. The full council voted on committee chairs and vice chairs, so from that point of view, those that have the most seats get to choose.'

Currently the Conservatives have six committee chairs, UKIP have four and Labour have one. The Conservatives eight vice chairs and UKIP have five. Each committee is made up of five Conservative, four Labour and four UKIP councillors.