Latest: City council adviser excluded over Madeleine McCann stunt

A POLITICAL assistant employed by Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been temporarily excluded by the Conservative Party.

Felicity Cox, who is also head of a Keele University Tory group, has been suspended as part of an investigation into a party activist's decision to dress up as Madeleine McCann.

Matt Lewis, a previous chairman of Staffordshire Conservative Future, was expelled from the party after writing on an internet social networking site that he intended to go to a New Year's Eve event dressed as the missing five-year-old.

It is alleged he exchanged online messages with Ms Cox, the chairman of Keele University's Conservative Future branch, who also has links to the party's Newcastle and Keele group. She has now been temporarily excluded from the Conservative Party while officials look into the matter. It is not known how long the investigation by the party's central office will take.

Ms Cox is paid by Stoke-on-Trent City Council to work with the Conservatives and Independent Alliance and help portfolio holders put together policy.

Owen Meredith, chairman of Newcastle Conservative Association, said: "I can confirm that she has been excluded, that it still stands, and that she is not involved with the party in any sort of official capacity or otherwise."

In an online conversation, Mr Lewis is said to have told Ms Cox: "There was a brief moment when I thought I might have gone too far, but it was OK."

She is alleged to have replied he may have "pulled a Prince Harry", a reference to the royal's decision to wear a Nazi uniform to a party in 2005.

Party chairman Caroline Spelman said last week about Mr Lewis's actions:"There is no place for this sort of person in the party."

The expulsion was praised by a spokesman for the McCann family.

Mr Lewis apologised, saying his actions had not meant to be malicious.

For more on this story see tomorrow's Sentinel