LABOUR’S national deputy leader has joined calls for the Conservatives to kick out a councillor who made a homophobic remark on his Facebook page.

Seacombe councillor Denis Knowles made the comment about “limp-wristed” people handing out leaflets last Sunday, though he later withdrew it.

Hours after the story emerged, the Tory councillor, who last year defected from Labour, was suspended from the party pending an investigation, but he now faces further pressure.

Earlier yesterday, the Labour leader of Wirral Council, Cllr Steve Foulkes, said: “I welcome the decision by Wirral’s Conservative Party locally to suspend him but if David Cameron wishes to demonstrate that homophobia has no place in politics today, then he will expel Cllr Knowles from the Conservative Party forthwith.

“Cllr Knowles has demonstrated that he is no longer fit to be a councillor and should resign his seat and allow the electorate of Seacombe to vote for a candidate who is free from prejudice and bigotry.

“Perhaps the local Conservatives will not be so quick next time to welcome someone into their ranks who has clearly displayed such a lack of integrity.”