A scandal-hit councillor who made headlines after he deliberately stopped paying tax has been suspended by his party for a year.
Sebastian Leslie, who represents the West Garioch ward, did not attend Aberdeenshire Council meetings for four months after deliberately withholding tax in what he claimed was a protest against corruption in the Scottish justice system.
He was suspended by the Tories after racking up thousands of pounds in arrears which prompted an internal investigation to determine whether he had brought the party into disrepute.
Now it has emerged that party bosses have banned the castle-dwelling clan chief until June next year, when his position will be reviewed.
As the party had already suspended Mr Leslie, father of Game of Thrones star Rose, he had been forced to leave the local Conservatives and join the Aligned Independent group – both make up the authority’s ruling administration along with the Lib Dems.
But last night opposition councillors called for Mr Leslie to be removed from the administration and branded the party’s handling of the controversy a “farce”.
Richard Thomson, the leader of the opposition Alliance group, said: “If Councillor Leslie isn’t fit to be a member of the Conservatives, then he’s not fit to be in the Conservative-led council administration full-stop.
“Unless steps are taken to have him thrown out of the council administration, the Conservatives will stand accused of trying to deceive the public by imposing a PR-stunt sanction which is utterly meaningless for all concerned.”
Mr Leslie previously supported the Tories’ decision to proceed with disciplinary action but said he was unable to go into further detail about the reasons behind his protest against the “degradation of the Scottish justice system”, which he said had been part of a decade-long campaign.
The authority’s leader, and head of the local Conservative group, Jim Gifford dismissed Mr Thomson’s accusations.
He said: “Councillor Leslie was suspended from the Conservative group and became an independent.
“He applied and successfully joined the Aligned Independent group – he could have become an unaligned independent but chose not to and the administration was happy to proceed on that basis.”
A spokesman for the party said: “Councillor Leslie has been suspended from the Scottish Conservative party. We will not be making any further comment.”
Mr Leslie did not respond to requests for comment.
