SHAMED Conservative Councillor Ray Burston is facing calls for him to resign as a councillor after being caught watching pornography on his council laptop.

Cradley South and Hayley Green Cllr Burston stunned fellow members at Dudley Council last night when he admitted accessing pornography on his council laptop and resigned from the shadow cabinet.

Labour Cradley councillor and Dudley Council children’s services supremo Tim Crumpton believes his position as a ward councillor is untenable.

He said: “If it was a council employee who had done the same thing with the same council computer systems then he would be facing the sack.

“I admire Cllr Burston’s bravery for standing up at full council and resigning from the shadow cabinet but I think he is in an impossible position as a councillor as we, as members, should be better than that.”

Chairman of UKIP Halesowen and Dudley Bill Etheridge also called for Cllr Burston’s resignation.

He said: “It is interesting that Dudley Tories do not consider one of their councillors accessing pornography from council computers to be a serious enough issue to stand down as a councillor.

“Guess it shows how low their standards have slipped, shameful behaviour.”

Leader of the Conservatives Cllr Patrick Harley backed Cllr Burston to stay on as a ward councillor whilst accepting his resignation from the front bench.

Halesowen and Rowley Regis MP James Morris backed fellow Conservative Cllr Burston to rebuild his reputation.

He said: “Clearly what Ray did was wrong and recognises that it was wrong.

“Now that he has apologised and taken the extraordinary step of donating all of the rest of his allowances to charity, I hope that he will get on with rebuilding the excellent reputation he has always had for working extremely hard to help people in Hayley Green and Cradley South.”

Cradley Heath and Old Hill Labour Councillor John Tipper had sympathy with the former Mayor of Dudley.

He said: “I feel a bit sorry for Cllr Burston.

“It all seems to be the world's most low rent sex scandal how we got from Profumo and Kennedy to this is beyond me.”

He added: “Fortunately it would be impossible to access pornography on a Sandwell Council laptop because it would take three hours loading it and then mysteriously turn itself off like everything else.”

The Bishop of Dudley Right Reverend David Walker would not be drawn on the matter due to his involvement with the council.

He said: “I cannot comment, I am an independent member of the council’s standards committee and matters like this are sometimes brought to my attention for me to give advice.

“I might be asked to give formal advice on this at a later stage.”