DOUGLAS Ross has refused to comment on the Scottish Tories' lengthy suspension process after a councillor who was suspended over Facebook posts resigned from the party.
On Monday Colin McGavigan revealed he had resigned from the Scottish Tories, saying he would now sit as an independent.
“I resigned,” he told the Daily Record. “It went on for five months.
“It went on so long. It was a protest at the party.”
READ MORE: Scottish Tory councillor suspended over Black Lives Matter posts quits party
Ross was asked about the Tories' long suspension process on Good Morning Scotland.
"Well that was the problem with that specific councillor, the process couldn't be completed because he resigned from the party," he said.
When pressed on the issue again by Laura Maxwell, Ross said: "Well you can't complete an investigation if someone is no longer a member of the party but he was immediately suspended."
Maxwell pointed out that it took five months.
Ross went on: "He has left the party and we can't then continue with an investigation but I'm sure when John Swinney is on you'll ask why Margaret Ferrier who took Covid across the country is still a member of the SNP."
McGavigan, a councillor in South Lanarkshire, was suspended in June after posting two images – one of a hockey player standing with her hand on her chest as her team mates kneeled, and another, taken in 1936, of a German man alone in a crowd of people giving the salute.
He wrote: “In years to come she’ll be acknowledged as one who didn’t bow to the narrative when it was the easy thing to do.”
In another post he shared pictures of representations of Mary, Jesus and Joseph from around the world, adding: “I do hope Asian and African countries will be challenged on their portrayals of the Holy Family as he was not oriental and he certainly wouldn’t have been black.”
After his suspension the councillor said: “Of course black lives matter, and all lives matter.”
However he questioned why people take the knee, asking: “What does that actually mean? I just don’t get it.”
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