SCOTTISH councillor Alastair Redman has been revealed as one of the 25 Tories suspended by the party this week over claims of Islamophobic social media posts.

The Kintyre and the Islands representative for Argyll and Bute said he had been set up because he is such an "active" councillor and "strong" Conservative. Redman said he believed the naming and shaming scenario had been "engineered" to distract from Labour's anti-Semitism scandal.

He said: "This has been timed to coincide with the General Election and has been engineered to take away some of the attention from Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis.

"Being in politics you will always get accusations made against you. This is happening to me because I’m a very active councillor and a strong Conservative.

"I’m still in the party, it’s a suspension – it’s not permanent. I’m looking forward to being re-admitted.

‘"The party has a duty to look into this and I support them fully in that. I am 100% confident I will be completely exonerated. I still support the Conservatives wholeheartedly and will be voting Conservative in the next election.

"I have campaigned alongside Muslims, Jews and Christians and I judge all people as individuals. My constituents know that I’m not prejudiced. The investigation will be wrapped up in an orderly fashion and the party will take all the time it needs to do that."

Redman faced pressure when he stood for Westminster in the 2015 General Election after sharing a Facebook post by Britain First. The post welcomed news of Abu Hamza being convicted of terror charges in the US. It is unclear whether that incident is related to the councillor's suspension.

He said he had "not been told" exactly why the suspension had been put in place.

An Argyll and Bute spokesperson said: "This is a political matter arising from a complaint made to the Conservative Party and, as such, the council has no comment to make."

The 25 suspensions, of former and current Tory councillors, came after The Guardian handed a dossier containing the allegations, which had been produced by a Twitter user, to the Conservative Party.