A Conservative MP has torn into bankrupt Birmingham City Council after it was revealed they spent £160,000 on private consultants while slashing public services.

Birmingham council declared itself broke last September after being ordered to pay multimillion-pound liabilities to settle equal pay claims.

The move means huge spending cuts for local people and public services.

As part of the brutal financial reality, last week youth workers in the city were told that all 37 part-time staff were being made redundant, with youth centres being put up for sale, despite a teenage knife crime epidemic.

Three different departments – the Birmingham Youth Service, the Careers Service, and Teenage Services – are now being merged into one department with a budget of £500,000.

However the council has now parked further fury after it was revealed that private consultancy firm Newton Europe was handed cash worth a third of the new department’s budget to design the merger.

A council spokesman said: “Newton Europe have been appointed to conduct this review, and once it is complete the council will consider the recommendations regarding future service delivery.”

They have since accepted that the process has been “handled badly”.

Reacting to the revelations, West Midlands Tory MP Bradley Thomas slammed the decision and called on local residents to make their views known at the ballot box.

Mr Thomas, the MP for Bromsgrove, told the Express: “Nothing surprises me anymore about how Labour has run Birmingham City Council into the ground.

“If you want to see what the Labour government will do to our economy, just look at what their party has done to our Second City.

“As an MP whose constituency borders Birmingham City Council, the decisions made by Europe’s largest local authority have a knock-on effect on the wider West Midlands region.

“It’s shocking, but again not surprising, that, at a time when Labour is telling everyone there’s no money left, they’ve somehow found £160,000 down the back of the sofa to pay for consultants.

“I very much hope the people of Birmingham make their views known at the ballot box at the next set of local elections.”