GOVERNMENT Minister Eric Pickles has been told to 'stop interfering' by council Leader Lesley Clarke - who has suggested his crackdown on local authority pay comes from his 'Marxist leanings'.

Mr Pickles has repeatedly called for chief executives to slash their pay at a time of cuts - sentiments echoed last week by Prime Minister David Cameron.

But Wycombe District Councillor Clarke said Mr Pickles' 'demonising' of council bosses was a 'smokescreen' for spending cuts.

An angry Cllr Clarke said: “I do have to say if Eric Pickles wants us to work local I propose stop interfering Eric and let us get on with the job.

“You can't keep on saying you want it to be local and every time we turn and twist we've got something else we have got to argue the toss on.

“We know how we can run our council or our businesses, let us. They've given us a mountain to climb. Stop interfering with us trying to get things working.

“We've got 16.8 per cent cuts this year, that's day to day running, we've got 13.4 per cent next year.

“We've got a big job to do, stop coming in muddying the waters.”

In a push for greater 'transparency' in Local Government, Mr Pickles has also told councils to declare details of staff earning salaries above £58,000 and invoices over £500.

The majority of these measures have already been taken up by Buckinghamshire's five councils.

But the combined salary of about £670,000 paid to the five chief executives was last week branded 'madness', at a time of cuts, by Cllr Gary Hall.

The county's top earning boss Chris Williams has accused Mr Pickles of scapegoating chief executives and pointed out half of his £207,000 salary goes back to the Government in tax.

Cllr Clarke said she agreed with him.

“For Eric to say that we're paying people ridiculous amounts of money, I have to say after listening to the news on Radio 4 they said 40 years ago he was a Marxist and Marxists like to change Government.

"Well perhaps he hasn't lost his Marxist leanings.

“It doesn't matter which chief executive you're talking about, they're running businesses and they've got a lot to do.”

She said the size of authorities made the top jobs comparable with the private sector.

BCC is the largest employer in the county with a budget similar to many FTSE 100 companies, while WDC is the fourth largest council of its kind in the UK.

All council staff earning over £100,000 will have their salaries publicly approved by councillors, under the latest proposals from Mr Pickles.

Cllr Clarke said this was “all well and good” but asked: “Where's the opportunity for everybody to actually comment on the salaries of say our cabinet members in Government or civil servants?”

A Local Government Department spokesman said: "The new Government is providing more powers and freedoms to councils on how they spend taxpayers' money.

"But greater local autonomy should be accompanied by greater local accountability to the press and public, which is why we are asking councils to be more transparent on salaries and spending.

"This is all about giving more power to the elbow of local taxpayers across Wycombe.

"It was Margaret Thatcher who first championed openness by introducing a Private Members Bill in 1960 requiring council meetings to be open to the press and public."