North Ayrshire Tories have quit twitter following a councillor’s controversial post on the social media site.

The Conservative group of councillors on NAC has condemned the use of Twitter by Councillors from all parties who have used it to attack other Councillors.

The decision comes following Todd Ferguson’s reference to SNP councillor Joy Brahim in a tweet saying “A fellow councillor went on a witch hunt when I asked why she wanted to break up the UK being in the EU.

“Despite living in the country for seven years, she is not a citizen, but is happily pocketing two taxpayer funded jobs via the SNP.”

The tweet sparked calls for Cllr Ferguson to resign, however he has since apologised ‘if the tweet was taken out of context’ and has been backed by his party at a local and national level.

The group say they will cease using the site and will not respond to any negative or derogatory postings from fellow Councillors and in the interest of Member relations request other members do likewise.

Group leader Councillor Tom Marshall said: “At the meeting we also congratulated Councillor Todd Ferguson, who was subject to a spurious complaint to the Standards Commission, on his receipt from Commission of Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland, intimation that he had not contravened the Code of Conduct in respect of a complaint made by another Councillor.”

The Conservative group issued a statement saying: “We do as Councillors strive to comply with the Councillors' Code of Conduct published by the Standards Commission for Scotland.

“This provides that when performing duties as a Councillor, a Councillor must respect all other councillors, members of the public and all Council employees and the role they play, treating them with courtesy at all times.

“If we have inadvertently failed to live up to this high standard we do apologise.”

Since the incident North Ayrshire council have received two complaints from members of the public over the social media comments made by Cllr Ferguson.

A NAC spokesperson said: “We advised that if they feel a councillor has failed to comply with the Councillor’s Code of Conduct then a complaint needs to be made to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards.

“We have not received notification from the Commissioner that a complaint has been made.

“The Council and its officers will continue to offer support to all Councillors to enable them to carry out their Council duties.”