The organiser of yesterday's botched taxi protest has blamed Leicester City Council for the traffic chaos it caused.

The go-slow around Leicester began at 4.20pm on Friday and almost 90 cabs began the slow circuit of the city centre.

However, the route had to be altered at the last minute after a man threatened to jump off a building in Humberstone Gate but some cabbies ignored the order to change the route and ambulances struggled to get through the traffic to deal with the emergency.

Later in the protest the taxis all stopped along The Newarke while they negotiated another change to the route.

According to the city's Area Traffic Control the affects were "horrific" and the action brought traffic to a "standstill".

Sir Peter Soulsby, city mayor, said the rogue drivers were "grossly irresponsible" for blocking the emergency services and that the protesters had lost the public's sympathy.

In response, Umar Khan, RMT Union Branch Secretary, today blamed the council for "disruptive underhand behaviour" that made the congestion worse.

He said: "We acknowledge that there was a slight delay near the Newarke Street junction.

"However, this particular aspect of our protest was not of our making.

"The blame for this lies firmly at the door of the council, as we were not given the correct information from Leicester City Council's traffic management team who deliberately diverted the procession en route.

"However, much to our dismay, cars and buses were seen using Pocklingtons Walk, which led to the added congestion encountered along Newarke Street and Southgates.

"The RMT had no pre-planned intentions of purposely bringing Southgates to a standstill as we had openly and honestly co-operated with the council and police in the lead up to, and all throughout, the go-slow taxi protest.

"We would like to place on record our thanks and appreciation to the police officers for their support, courtesy and cooperation and also apologise to the public for any added disruptions they incurred due to the disruptive underhand behaviour which was deliberately employed by Leicester City Council leading too even more delays and disruption to the public."