By NEIL SEARS

Last updated at 22:17 24 March 2008

A Tory councillor has claimed that there should be compulsory sterilisation for parents on benefits.

John Ward prompted comparisons with Adolf Hitler and calls for his resignation after attacking "professional spongers" who he claims "breed for greed".

He has removed the original comments from his website blog and said he was sorry if he caused any problems.

But Mr Ward, a 58-year- old bachelor, has since published a defiant claim that he was "exposing easily demonstrable truths".

He added that "a pushy cold caller at the door got me so irate and upset that I didn't finish what I was doing correctly".

The row erupted with an entry on his Internet blog after Shannon Matthews was recently found alive in a relative's home after being missing for 24 days.

Mr Ward, who has sat on Medway Council in Kent for eight years, focused on how the nine-year-old's mother Karen has seven children by five fathers.

He wrote: "This is yet another example of 'Breakdown Britain', much of which stems from the Government-encouraged change away from the hard-working and decent family structure to an increasingly self-indulgent immoral and state-funded lazy lifestyle.

"Children become just a means toward that end, and are of themselves of little if any further significance in this new society.

"I think there is an increasingly strong case for compulsory sterilisation of all those who have had a second (or third, or whatever) child while living off state handouts.

"It would clearly take a lot of social pressures off all concerned, thus protecting the youngsters themselves to some degree, and remove the incentive to 'breed for greed' - i.e. for more public subsidy of their lifestyle (a well-known dodge, worth ever greater amounts to countless thousands of professional spongers).

"With over-population being the root cause of so much that negatively impacts Planet Earth, the very last thing the world needs is to encourage excessive breeding."

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So happy: Karen Matthews and Craig Meehan share a kiss outside their Dewsbury home after Shannon was found alive

At the weekend, Mr Ward, a retired supermarket worker, had at first tried to play down the row.

He said: "The whole idea was to get people to think about issues.

"Also, I'm half-blind and missed out a word, I should have written 'consideration'. I'm sorry if it has caused any problems."

Then his defiant new entry followed in which he said he will "weather the storm ahead" and continue "exposing easily-demonstrable truths".

But Medway Labour deputy leader Glyn Griffiths said: "If the Conservatives care about their image they should expel him immediately. There is no place for this in mainstream politics."

Labour councillor Bill Esterson added: "It's the sort of thing Nazis did in Germany."

Medway Liberal

Democrat leader Geoff Juby said: "He is on a different planet. He should move to China where they have a one-child policy."

Local trade union leader Brian Kelly added: "He makes a strong case for someone to politically sterilise him."

A spokesman for Medway Conservatives said Mr Ward was simply voicing his own opinions.

Last night, a spokesman for Conservative Central Office said: "These remarks are abhorrent and the Conservative Party disassociates itself from them."