Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Tory councillor Sebastian Leslie suspended by party for a year after missed council tax payments

Councillor Sebastian Leslie has been suspended from the Conservative Party for a year.
Councillor Sebastian Leslie has been suspended from the Conservative Party for a year.

A scandal-hit councillor who made headlines after he deliberately stopped paying tax has been suspended by his party for a year.

Sebastian Leslie, who represents the West Garioch ward, did not attend Aberdeenshire Council meetings for four months after deliberately withholding tax in what he claimed was a protest against corruption in the Scottish justice system.

He was suspended by the Tories after racking up thousands of pounds in arrears which prompted an internal investigation to determine whether he had brought the party into disrepute.

Now it has emerged that party bosses have banned the castle-dwelling clan chief until June next year, when his position will be reviewed.

As the party had already suspended Mr Leslie, father of Game of Thrones star Rose, he had been forced to leave the local Conservatives and join the Aligned Independent group –  both make up the authority’s ruling administration along with the Lib Dems.

But last night opposition councillors called for Mr Leslie to be removed from the administration and branded the party’s handling of the controversy a “farce”.

Richard Thomson, the leader of the opposition Alliance group, said: “If Councillor Leslie isn’t fit to be a member of the Conservatives, then he’s not fit to be in the Conservative-led council administration full-stop.

“Unless steps are taken to have him thrown out of the council administration, the Conservatives will stand accused of trying to deceive the public by imposing a PR-stunt sanction which is utterly meaningless for all concerned.”

Mr Leslie previously supported the Tories’ decision to proceed with disciplinary action but said he was unable to go into further detail about the reasons behind his protest against the “degradation of the Scottish justice system”, which he said had been part of a decade-long campaign.

The authority’s leader, and head of the local Conservative group, Jim Gifford dismissed Mr Thomson’s accusations.

He said: “Councillor Leslie was suspended from the Conservative group and became an independent.

“He applied and successfully joined the Aligned Independent group – he could have become an unaligned independent but chose not to and the administration was happy to proceed on that basis.”

A spokesman for the party said: “Councillor Leslie has been suspended from the Scottish Conservative party. We will not be making any further comment.”

Mr Leslie did not respond to requests for comment.