Local council newspapers have come under fire from the culture, media and sport secretary.

In an interview in yesterday's Sunday Mirror, ex-local press journalist Ben Bradshaw MP calls authority newsletters "propaganda sheets" and urges council chiefs to reconsider how they use the cash they're spending on them.

Mr Bradshaw started his journalism career with the Express and Echo, one of the papers in his Exeter constituency, and later reported for Norwich's Eastern Daily Press and the BBC.

He took over his current role from health secretary Andy Burnham in June.

Mr Bradshaw told political editor Vincent Moss: "You've got local authorities that are spending considerable amount of council taxpayers' money employing armies of press officers to produce these propaganda sheets masquerading as newspapers.

"They remind me of (Soviet state newspaper) Pravda and papers I knew from my times in East Germany as a BBC correspondent.

"If the only information you're getting is misleading propaganda put out by politicians from one particular party, I think that's very dangerous."