Solihull councillor in anti-Muslim tweet probe

Jeff Potts also sat on the religious education committee

A Conservative councillor has been suspended by his party over allegations he shared anti-Muslim tweets.

Jeff Potts has also been suspended by the Tories from Solihull Council's religious education committee.

Mr Potts, who represents Knowle, also asked is "anybody surprised?" while retweeting negative stories about immigrants on Twitter.

Tory council leader Bob Sleigh said Mr Potts had been suspended while an investigation took place.

Mr Potts declined to comment when contacted by the BBC.

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Mr Sleigh said he took immediate action after the matter was brought to his attention last week following a complaint to the council.

"I saw one retweet which raised enough concern to suspend him immediately from the Conservative group," he said.

Mr Sleigh said retweeting suggested people were associated with the views expressed.

'Untenable position'

The matter has been passed to the council's monitoring officer to be dealt with under the code of conduct procedure, he added.

Mr Potts has also been suspended from his role as vice-chairman of the council's planning committee and from sitting as a Conservative on groups such as the licensing committee and Safer Solihull board.

Mr Sleigh said he could still "technically sit as an independent" on the committees.

The council's Green Party leader, James Burn, called for Mr Potts to resign, saying his "position is untenable" as he was publicising views which were "encouraging hatred".

However, Mr Sleigh said a resignation was not appropriate as an investigation needed to take place.

In June, another Solihull councillor was suspended from his cabinet position over an offensive tweet about protesters following the Grenfell Tower fire.