A councillor has resigned from his party after being suspended over a 'racist' tweet.

Conservative Bob Frost, of Deal, had remarked that Liverpool abortion services were part of its crime prevention.

He also said that he had "bought two staff" at the restaurant for the city's International Slavery Museum.

It provoked fury from Labour opponent Charlotte Cornell and the Conservative Party confirmed last Thursday it had suspended him. The row made national news.

But that same evening Cllr Frost announced that he was leaving the party.

His email to Keith Single, chairman of Dover and Deal Conservative Association, said: "With great sadness I wish to resign my membership of the Conservative Party with immediate effect.

"I shall remain on DDC (Dover District Council) as an independent councillor (though would hope to continue working closely with Conservative councillors).

"The party locally and nationally has more than enough important stuff to do without wasting time on 'complaints' the purposefully offended have made about me."

The row began when Ms Cornell tweeted a picture of herself in Liverpool for the Labour Party conference last month.

Cllr Frost responded saying: “The only city I know where the local Marie Stopes clinic is funded by the council as part of their crime prevention programme.”

"The party locally and nationally has more than enough important stuff to do without wasting time on 'complaints' the purposefully offended have made about me" - Cllr Bob Frost

These clinics provide abortion, vasectomy and contraception services.

Ms Cornell, Labour’s parliamentary candidate, called for him to resign.

Cllr Frost said: “B******s, BTW (by the way) don’t miss the Tate and Slavery Museum.

"I visited in Jan when went to see Ken Dodd. Excellent service in restaurant attached. So good I bought two of the staff.”

She branded that remark as "racist."

Cllr Frost, district council member for North Deal and also a Deal town councillor, had not referred to the race of the staff he remarked about.

He later told KentOnline: “There is no Marie Stopes Clinic in Liverpool so no Liverpudlian users of it to offend and it is certainly NOT ‘just’ an abortion clinic.

"I suspect that they, as much as I, find the term offensive.

“It deals in all forms of 'planned parenthood'.”

The nearest Marie Stopes clinic to central Liverpool is 37 miles away in Bolton, Lancashire.