Labour had to clarify its local government tax policies yesterday after a junior transport minister said the party planned to scrap the council tax because it was "regressive".

Charlotte Atkins, the Labour candidate for Staffordshire Moorlands, made the error during an interview with BBC Radio Stoke.

Atkins said: "It's our policy to completely review it. We are scrapping the present system because it's regressive. It was brought in by the Tories after the fiasco of the poll tax. The review is due at the end of the year. We are not going to make the same mistakes the Tories made by rushing in a tax which was regressive."

Later, having realised her mistake, she said: "Sorry. I accept that I got this wrong. Our policy is not to scrap council tax but to retain and reform it."

Her apology was repeated by local government minister Nick Raynsford.

"Charlotte simply got it wrong," he said. "As we have repeatedly made clear, our policy is to retain but reform council tax."