A Conservative councillor has been suspended after retweeting a "completely unacceptable" message which portrayed Diane Abbott as an ape wearing lipstick.

Alan Pearmain, the deputy chairman of the South Ribble Conservative Association, shared a picture of an Orangutan which included the strapline "get the Diane Abbott look". He added a comment to the original post which said: "Nice lips kid. But a shade too much rouge."

A Conservative spokesman said: “His comments are completely unacceptable and he has been suspended from the party, pending an investigation.”

In his Twitter profile, Mr Pearmain describes himself as “positioned slightly to the right of Attila the Hun”. He denied that the tweet, first reported by the Lancashire Evening Post, was racist.

He told The Guardian: “I’m almost 70, I’ve been asked to apologise on many, many occasions. Sometimes it warrants apologising, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you have to stand up for your principles.

“Can you tell me what’s wrong with the tweet? I thought it was her size and her appearance, nothing to do with colour.”

It came after it emerged that Ms Abbott reportedly told Brexit secretary David Davis to "f*** off" after he went to kiss her in a bar in the House of Commons on Wednesday night.