A former leader of Bradford Council has called for the metropolitan district to be split up.

Kris Hopkins, who led the Council until he was elected as Tory MP for Keighley at the last General Election, wants people in Keighley and Ilkley to vote on gaining independence from Bradford Council.

He plans to use a clause in the Government’s new Localism Bill whereby his constituents could force a referendum on whether the area should break away from Bradford Council to form its own administration.

Mr Hopkins was speaking in the House of Commons during a debate on the new bill, designed to decentralise Government power and hand it over to local communities across the country.

He said he was concerned about a clause in the proposed new legislation establishing elected mayors at 12 cities in England, including Bradford.

Mr Hopkins said: “My constituency was put into Bradford and although I like the city and people of Bradford the people of Keighley are not too enthusiastic about being part of Bradford Council. I look forward to using one of the referendum options so that the constituency of Keighley can break away from Bradford Council, if it needs to, and form its own administration.”

Councillor Ian Greenwood, leader of Labour-led Bradford Council, is set to become the district’s ‘shadow mayor’ this summer for a year before the 2012 mayoral referendum. Coun Greenwood, who has said he is uncomfortable about becoming shadow mayor, admitted he would sign a petition for a referendum if he lived in Keighley.

“If the people of Keighley want a referendum on virtually anything, I’m more than happy for them to have it,” he said. “I believe in democracy.”

But he said Mr Hopkins was being “hypocritical” after his time as Bradford Council leader.

“He was leader of the Council for four years and he demonstrated in that period a lack of enthusiasm for doing anything for the people of Bradford,” Coun Greenwood said. “What this demonstrates now was that throughout that time as leader of the Council he was completely hypocritical.”

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, leader of the Council’s Liberal Democrat group, said the idea of the Localism Bill was to let people decide things at a local level. She said: “It’s up to the wishes of the people of Keighley and Ilkley, given they have got a town council and a parish council and dozens of elected district councillors. I would leave it up to the people to decide.”