BURY council has called for a general election to “break the impasse”, following a lengthy debate on Brexit.

Councillors opted not to support a People’s Vote by calling for another referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, which the Liberal Democrats suggested.

Instead, the Labour group argued that a general election should be called because, it claimed, the government no longer enjoyed the confidence of parliament after it suffered its biggest ever defeat on Tuesday.

The debate took place at a full council meeting on Wednesday night as Theresa May’s government survived a no-confidence vote down in London.

Conservative councillors said that the local authority was wasting time by discussing Brexit, with one member accusing his opponents of thinking they were in Westminster.

In 2016, 54 per cent of voters backed Leave in the EU Referendum when Bury was the first authority in Greater Manchester to declare a result.

Cllr Roy Walker said: “Labour all voted to say that Bury wanted to remain and you were completely wrong. Bury voted to leave as did the rest of the country.”

He disagreed with people describing Brexit as “divisive”, stating that elections can also be described in this way.

But he suggested that calling for a People’s Vote would only add to this sense of division.

He said: “If you go for a second referendum I can only say, you ain’t seen nothing yet. We will fight you if you make us vote again.”

Fellow Conservative Cllr Jackie Harris said that when she knocks on doors, nobody mentions Brexit.

The Church ward councillor said a second referendum is not something she wants to be knocking on doors for again.

During the meeting, Cllr Tamoor Tariq took to Twitter accusing Cllr Harris of being “out of touch” following her comments.

He said: “Just shows how out of touch local and national Tories are. This is only the biggest political decision our nation has ever taken.”

Council leader Rishi Shori told his colleagues that Brexit would have a damaging impact on Greater Manchester, citing figures which showed the city-region’s economic growth would be £8.2bn less than current forecasts.

The EU accounted for 57 per cent of goods exports from Greater Manchester firms in 2017, according to the Combined Authority report.

He argued that organising a second referendum would take several months, whereas a general election could take place in a matter of weeks.

Conservative leader James Daly said a Corbyn-led government would tax Bury “out of existence”.