THE town's mayor has quit in disgrace today after a series of inflammatory social media messages were uncovered.

Peter Lucey, Conservative, has resigned with immediate effect from the political party and from his post.

Speaking to the News this afternoon, he said he realised his words were 'not appropriate' for a mayor and apologised to residents.

Mr Lucey said: "Some past social media posts came to light and those are not appropriate for the Town Mayor.

"I resigned for that reason, and I fully apologise to everyone involved.

"I would like to apologise to the people of Wokingham and to my party, and I resign from all of them."

When asked about the content of the posts - the majority of which were about Islam - and some of the accounts he followed, such as the EDL, Mr Lucey said: "Well, I didn't post much, a lot of social media is complex, and I'm not a great social media person, it's possible that you can post the wrong thing and if anyone is offended I truly apologise.

"I wanted to resign because it's important that the town isn't involved in an error. My position of town mayor was completely untenable.

"I've deleted my Twitter account, I hardly ever use it actually."

Mr Lucey deleted his Twitter account moments after the News pressed him for comment.

He said he 'hardly ever' used Twitter and was unaware he was following controversial accounts.

It was at this point Mr Lucey gave out a sigh and said he would make no further comment, before continuing: "[...] it's not appropriate for a town mayor or a member of the Conservatives to be a part of that, and that's why I resign."

Andy Croy told the News that Mr Lucey had made islamophobic comments online regarding immigration.

He explained: "I saw the messages and wrote to The Wokingham Conservatives, pointing out that I thought it was islamophobic and that they needed to deal with it.

"I demanded his resignation.

"He posted something along the lines of 'mass immigration has destroyed your future'".

Wokingham Conservatives dispute Andy Croy's claim that he contacted them. They say they were not contacted by Andy Croy and the first they knew of the situation was being CC'd into a letter regarding the complaint.

The News' reporter attempted to contacted Wokingham Conservatives this afternoon (April 25). At 6pm this evening, a spokesman said on the telephone that he would not issue a formal statement unless a request for one was made by email and not verbally over the phone, as is 'common practice'. The News is awaiting a comment following a formal written request.

Wokingham Conservatives responded at 10.30am (April 26) to state that they would not be making a statement.

A Wokingham Town Council statement read: "Councillor Peter Lucey has today resigned from Wokingham Town council for personal reasons."