A SNP councillor has been slammed for liking a tweet which showed a cartoon image of a woman being gagged, blindfolded and pinned down by two men wearing Union flags on their shirt sleeves.

The Courier reports that Councillor John Rebbeck, who represents Perth City North, was criticised by the Tories for favouriting the “repulsive” post from an account which claimed the “British state had occupied” Scotland.

The politician is now facing calls to resign from his post as convener of the council’s learning and families committee.

He has since admitted that the photo was “entirely inappropriate” and says it does not reflect his “views or character”.

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In the image, the woman can be seen holding a stick from a broken Saltire flag. The picture tweeted out from an account claiming to be “against foreign rule”.

This comes in the wake of the decision from the UK Supreme Court that Holyrood does not have the power to legislate for indyref2 without Westminster’s consent.

In another tweet which was later deleted, Rebbeck claimed the UK Government were behaving like Scotland’s “imperial masters”.

On Friday, he tweeted: “In the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday I liked a tweet for its political context.

“In hindsight the image attached to the tweet was entirely inappropriate and does not reflect my views or my character.”

MSP Murdo Fraser described the move as “deeply offensive and insensitive” while the Perth Conservative group leader John Duff said the Tories were “aghast” at Rebbeck “liking such an abhorrent and repulsive image”.

Duff has written to SNP local authority chief Grant Laing demanding Rebbeck is sacked from his convener post.

Laing said he would speak to the Perth and Kinross monitoring officer before the matter was discussed any further.

Rebbeck and the Perth and Kinross SNP group have been approached for comment.