Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has been re-bailed until February.
The city council leader was one of five men arrested earlier this month as part of Operation Aloft, an investigation into building and development contracts.
Anderson stepped aside from his role as the city’s directly-elected Mayor in anticipation of the police’s expected decision on Thursday (December 31).
However detectives have now extended the timeline until February 19, 2021.
The 62-year-old, who has been council leader since 2010, was also suspended by the Labour Party pending the outcome of the investigation.
He was originally arrested on suspicion of bribery and witness intimidation alongside four individuals detained in the Merseyside region on December 4.
They include a 72-year-old from Aigburth, a 33-year-old from West Derby, a 46-year-old man from Ainsdale and a 25-year-old from Ormskirk.
Robert Jenrick, the Government’s Communities Secretary, has ordered a probe into the local authority in light of the police’s current line of inquiry.
“I am disappointed by this decision as I have provided the police with all of the information they have asked for and answered all their questions in relation to the issues raised with me,” said Anderson in a statement.
“I have also made it clear that I will continue to fully support and co-operate with them in their continuing enquiries.
“Although our justice system is built on the principle of being innocent until proven guilty, their decision does in fact change everything, and restricts and restrains me from functioning as normal.
“Any media attention around the investigation will clearly be focused on me and not on the positives of our city and this is not how it should be.
“I maintain that the police investigation will confirm I have done nothing wrong, and my name and reputation will be exonerated.
“However, it is now clear that the speed of the police investigation means it will not conclude in the next few days as I hoped.
“My faith is important to me as is also knowing that truth and justice will prevail, I have never done anything that would harm this city.
“There is an old saying, ‘it’s not about the man in the fight, it’s about the fight in the man’.
“I will continue to fight to both demonstrate that I am innocent of any wrongdoing, but also to protect my legacy as Mayor of my city of which I am proud.
“I have always put the city first, that is why it is a tough, but the right, decision to continue to step back from my role in the council until the enquiries are completed and to allow Deputy and Acting Mayor Wendy Simon, and my cabinet colleagues to continue providing the leadership for the city.
“The timing of the extended bail notice means that it is in the best interests of the Labour Party to select a new candidate for the mayoral election.
“It has been a great privilege to represent the Labour Party and be part of a collective movement that represents people like me growing up in, and trying to find a way out of, poverty.
“Whoever the new Labour mayoral candidate is, I will cheer them on with all my heart.
“My term as Mayor will end at the next election and, although currently I must be absent from decision-making within the council, my passions and energy will always be on the challenges our city faces and the opportunities we must seize.
“I hope that the Police enquiries will be completed swiftly and long before the expiry of my term of office.
“But whilst they continue I will voluntarily treat myself in the same way in which any other council staff member would be treated in any enquiry of this character and step back from any active role in the council.”