A Labour councillor opposed to having an elected mayor has attacked Lord Bassam over his "obvious need to recover your status as Brighton and Hove's Mr Big".

With the result of the referendum on whether the city should have an elected mayor less than a week away, Councillor Kevin Allen warned Lord Bassam the city was not his "personal fiefdom".

Last week Lord Bassam wrote to all councillors asking them not to bring personal abuse into the campaign over whether Brighton and Hove should have a mayor.

Coun Allen, in a letter leaked to The Argus, said Lord Bassam had put himself in the firing line by heading the Yes campaign.

He told Lord Bassam: "It was inevitable that the elected mayor debate would, to some extent, be about you."

Coun Allen said Lord Bassam made a clear career choice when Tony Blair invited him to join the Government as a Home Office minister.

He added: "You moved on, away from Brighton and Hove. We are not your personal fiefdom to return to when your Westminster career seems to have hit the buffers.

"In your obsession with getting an elected mayor for the city and your painfully obvious need to recover your status as Brighton and Hove's Mr Big, you come across as undignified, desperate even."

Lord Bassam said: "I am surprised Kevin Allen has written to me in such terms. It confirms to me that a small group of backbiting councillors just want to carry on a personal vendetta in the guise of the No campaign.

"They ought instead to look at what can be achieved by a directly-elected mayor in improving the quality of public services, lifting the quality of life and achieving regeneration."