THE SCOTTISH Conservative party has suspended a local council candidate after a series of bigoted comments were uncovered by the press.

In a popular online football discussion board, Greg Turner, who is standing to become a councillor in East Renfrewshire referred to a local Catholic high school as a "bigot factory," and described Catholics as "papes".

According to the Daily Record, The Tory was behind a profile known as "MearnsUnionist".

In one post, he claimed a number of Catholic families had moved to the Stamperland neighbourhood in Clarkston following the opening of St Ninian's high school in nearby Giffnock.

He said: "A lot of pape families moved in so they could get their kids to the best performing bigot factory in Scotland."

He added: "Obviously there's still a decent amount of good guys in that area too, but there's definitely been an infiltration over time."

In another post, the account posted: "Barrhead has by far the biggest population of mentally challengeds [sic] in East Renfrewshire."

A Tory spokesman told the paper: "This candidate has been suspended after a number of completely unacceptable posts emerged."

The Daily Record reports that Mr Turner will no longer be supported by the party but his name will still appear on ballot papers as the deadline to withdraw nominations has passed.