SURREY Leader David Hodge came under renewed attack for the county council’s shock budget U-turn which saw a proposed 15 per cent tax hike reduced a rise of 4.99 per cent to avoid a referendum.

In a leaked recording obtained by the BBC of a private meeting on February 7, the day before Surrey’s U-turn, Mr Hodge said he had struck a deal with the government before scrapping the proposed 15 per cent council tax hike.

The prime minister Theresa May has repeatedly denied Surrey County Council was given what Labour called “a sweetheart deal” but in the recording, Mr Hodge said he had written government assurances and recordings of talks.

Responding this week, a government spokesman said “there was no special deal” and to imply the opposite was untrue, and Surrey County Council did not make fresh comment, but stuck to Mr Hodge’s original statement in response to February’s “sweetheart deal” allegations that there was “no deal” and the U-turn decision was Surrey’s “alone”.

Surrey Lib Dem leader Hazel Watson said she was “horrified” by the recording.

“The transcript of the Conservative group meeting begs the question - what does the leader of the council have in writing,” she said. “It suggests a deal between the Conservative administration with the Government, and that the leader of the council wants to keep it under wraps.”

She is also angry about the Tories spending £24,500 on a consultants’ report for the budget which has not been published.