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Tory colleagues knew about a councillor who had shared Islamophobic retweets for more than 1,000 days before he was expelled from the party.

Michael Franklin was cast out after peer Sayeeda Warsi highlighted his years-old retweets of offensive messages - including one that said Justin Trudeau was "worshipping the devil" in a mosque.

Tory chiefs insist the party is swift to deal with complaints of Islamophobia.

Yet the tweets were first raised with Mr Franklin's council colleagues in Medway, Kent, in February 2016 - three years ago.

Mr Franklin was spoken to at the time by Tory council leader Alan Jarrett - but did not receive a written warning, and stayed in the Conservatives.

(Image: Twitter)

Only after Baroness Warsi raised the issue again was his case investigated by the Chatham and Aylesford Conservative Party - which expelled him last week.

Chairman Andrew Kennedy today insisted the local party had been unaware of Mr Franklin's Twitter activity until last month, then took action immediately.

He said: "There was clearly a breakdown in communication between the [council's] Conservative Group and the association and I really do regret that.

"Because believe me, had we known three years ago, disciplinary action would have been taken then."

The incident raises fresh questions over the speed with which the Conservative Party deals with claims of racism in its ranks.

(Image: Getty)

Medway’s Labour group leader Vince Maple said: "More than 1,000 days have passed since I brought Mr Franklin’s tweets to the attention of the Medway Conservatives back in February 2016 during the highest profile council meeting of the year.

"Serious questions need to be asked as to why he was reselected to stand in May 2019.

"If the Conservative Party took the issue of Islamophobia seriously, this would have been addressed much sooner."

Mr Franklin's retweets included a post calling anti-Islamophobia feminists "idiots" and “***ts”, and another with a photo of a woman in a hijab and man next to a black flag with the words: "Child sex abuse reports have increased 60% in Britain the last 4 years. Here's why."

(Image: Twitter)

Mr Franklin also replied to a photo of hate preacher Anjem Choudary captioned "Islam will dominate all lands it touches" with the words: "Anyone still have doubts?"

The tweets first came to attention when they were featured on The Political Medway blog, run by political commentator Ed Jennings, and Mr Maple made a complaint to the council's impartial monitoring officer.

Medway Council leader Mr Jarrett confirmed he held a meeting with Mr Franklin around the time of the original complaint in 2016.

Mr Jarrett told the Mirror: “I took action at the time that didn’t involve him being expelled. It was not up to me to expel him from the party anyway.

"It was a retweet. I had him in. I took the view that it was foolish rather than malicious.

"We had a discussion about it. I warned him… and he promised never to do it again, which he stuck by.”

(Image: Twitter)

Mr Jarrett said “subsequently” the issue was raised with the party more widely and “things have moved on since 2016, they decided to expel him.”

He added: "The party is an inclusive party. I think they did the right thing.”

A spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain told the Mirror that the party must get to grip with Islamophobia in its ranks.

They added: "Conservative Party officials must now stop parroting the Brandon Lewis line that complaints are being dealt with very swiftly, and instead acknowledge the seriousness of Islamophobia at all levels of the Party.

"More and more examples will continue to emerge and with such repeated denials from within the Party, an independent inquiry appears to be the only option."

Tory HQ sources insisted the entire matter was dealt with locally - including his expulsion.

A Conservative spokeswoman said: “This matter was dealt with locally. Mr Franklin has been expelled.”

Mr Franklin told the Mirror: "I do regret the retweets but only in the sense of my naivety."

He said he related "only to the images, not to the tags", "I do not hold Islamophobic or racist views of any kind" and the 2016 decision was made "quite properly" only for him to be investigated again.

"Why wait until now????? Election!!" he e-mailed the Mirror.

"I have suffered enough. The corrupt falseness is theirs."