Labour and Lib Dem councillors team up to call for Conservatives to expel Denis Knowles, accused of making “homophobic comment” on Facebook

Apr 21 2010 by Liam Murphy, Birkenhead News

WIRRAL Council has demanded that David Cameron expel a Tory councillor accused of making an allegedly homophobic comment on the internet.

Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors voted in favour of a notice of motion on Monday night calling on the Conservative leader to remove Seacombe councillor Denis Knowles.

It follows a comment made by Cllr Knowles on his Facebook page, assumed to refer to a group of Labour campaigners in his ward.

Mr Knowles, who had quit the Labour party last year to join with the opposition Conservative group, had described them as “limp wristed”.

He later removed the comment and apologised, and has been suspended from the Tory party pending an investigation.

Cllr Knowles also reported himself to Wirral Council's standards committee, and Tory leader Jeff Green insisted the issue had now become "political".

The notice of motion, put forward by deputy leader of the Labour group Cllr Phil Davies, demanded “that David Cameron take decisive action to show that homophobia has no place in modern politics today by expelling Councillor Knowles from the Conservative Party forthwith”.