THE mayor of a UK town has been forced to apologise after he called disabled people “mongols” and questioned whether they should be allowed to have sex with one another.

Nick Martin, mayor of Swindon, was reported by two other councillors when, during a council meeting about the challenges faced by disabled adults in modern society, he commented: “Are we still letting those mongols have sex with each other?”

Mr Martin, a conservative party councillor, initially denied saying anything.

Even though he later admitted to the offensive outburst he said he had only apologised because he “was asked to” by the town council’s standards committee.

Richard Hawkes, chief executive of the UK disabled charity Scope, said Mr Martin had “missed the point” with his apology.

Mr Hawkes said it wasn’t just an issue of “political correctness and using the wrong words”.

“Disturbingly, he has insinuated that there is something wrong with disabled people having sex with each other.

“This is about deep-seated, ignorance towards disabled people and a lack of acceptance that disabled people have sex lives, which can be just as fulfilling — or unfulfilling — as anyone else’s.”