Deputy Bradford Council leader Simon Cooke today urged people to forgive him for making a Nazi salute during a City Hall debate.

Demands have been made for his resignation after he made the gesture and called out "Sieg Heil" at the end of a speech by German-born Labour councillor Lynne Joyce.

Today, in a letter to the editor of the Telegraph & Argus, he condemns his own actions as "offensive and ignorant".

Coun Cooke, (Con, Bingley Rural), adds in the letter: "What I did was unacceptable and if I could wind the clock back and swallow my words I would.

"However, all I can do is offer a complete and unqualified apology."

Coun Cooke's boss, Council and Tory leader Councillor Margaret Eaton, said she was standing by him and revealed that he had not been disciplined.

"We know what he did was not meant with any malice or to upset anyone," she said.

"It was a thoughtless reaction and Simon has apologised unreservedly. If it had been done with malice it would have been different."

But Coun Cooke's actions at a Council meeting on Tuesday have been condemned by the Conservative Party.

A spokesman for Conservative Central Office said: "That sort of language, that sort of action, is completely inappropriate and should not be associated with the Conservative Party in any way. It is the type of comment we don't want to hear. Whether or not we are in the run up to an election, it is completely out of order.

"Should he resign? This is a question which needs to be addressed and dealt with by the local party but he has apologised very quickly."

Coun Joyce (Lab, Keighley South) has reported the incident to the Standards Board for England, the councils' watchdog.

If it considers an allegation important enough to investigate, and it is then upheld, a member can be suspended.

Coun Joyce said the apology was not enough. "I have posted my formal complaint to the Standards Board," she said.

"I honestly believe that there are some things for which no apology can compensate, and if you can pick one gesture that is never appropriate, it is a Nazi salute and saying Sieg Heil.

"It is really nice that the people of Bradford have had such a fulsome apology. All I have had is one line in an e-mail which is otherwise critical."