A LEADING councillor has called for a fellow member to resign after he was found guilty of breaching the council’s code of conduct over two “offensive” tweets.

Councillor Warren Morgan, leader of the Labour and Co-operative Group, has repeated his calls for Brighton and Hove City Council independent councillor Ben Duncan to stand down following the decision by a disciplinary panel on Monday.

Coun Duncan, pictured right, has been stripped of his two deputy chairman roles in licensing committees and is set to be formally censured at the next full council meeting on Thursday, October 23.

The former Green councillor has indicated he will challenge the decision, saying that the code of conduct should not impinge on his human rights to freedom of expression.

He has ten working days to appeal.

Coun Duncan was brought before the standards hearing over two tweets he posted in June.

He described British soldiers as ‘hired killers’ after they marched on Armed Forces Day and caused upset over a tweet relating to Islam.

The 43-year-old councillor won the seat in the Queen’s Park ward from Labour when he was elected to the council in 2007.

Coun Morgan said: “From the day he made these comments we have been consistent in calling for Councillor Ben Duncan to resign his seat.

“Following the result of the standards enquiry into his conduct, and his indication that he is going to appeal against their ruling that he brought his office into disrepute, we again call on him to resign without any further delay.”