A cabinet member of a county council has resigned after saying staff would be given an afternoon off for Christmas shopping to stop them 'skiving'.

Leicesterhire County Council cabinet member Kevin Feltham said this was better than losing them for a whole day and that it would boost morale.

A local press report quoted him saying that it was better to give workers time off than 'have them skive and leave offices short staffed'.

The 'perk' would have applied to 7,500 staff, though an announcement from the council said that it had no such plans and that the comments had angered staff.

Feltham has now resigned from the county council cabinet and council leader David Parsons is writing to staff to apologise.

Parsons said: "I want to make sure that staff realise that we value them very highly and recent comments in the press do not reflect what we think about them.

"With the co-operation of our staff and trade unions, we have reduced absence rates year on year."

Absence rates at the council recently stood at 13 days per employee against a national average of seven.