The mayor of Dover has insisted he will not be resigning after he was filmed in a bathroom snorting a line of white powder off a lavatory cistern.

Footage emerged of Neil Rix, the mayor of the Kent coastal town, sniffing the powder through a £20 note while accompanied by a friend.

Mr Rix, 54, claims he is the victim of a blackmail plot and that police are investigating.

Speaking after the footage was uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday night, he said: "The video forms part of a police investigation into the fact I am being blackmailed.

"It did not happen recently. I was set up, pushed into it and coerced.

"Someone had put drugs into my beer and I did not know I was being filmed."

He said he was not a drug user, insisting he was "dead against" drug taking, and he was not sure what type of substance he snorted or where it was filmed.

He said: "I have never done it before. I was drunk. What happened happened. I don't know what it was I was putting up my nose. It could have been sherbet for all I know."