A councillor has thrown himself into racial hot water by tweeting a picture of a blacked-up man to a black MP.

And Bob Frost kept up the assault by calling David Lammy a "humourless ****" when the MP for Tottenham demanded an apology.

Cllr Frost said he meant to juxtapose an image of fashion brand Gucci's controversial roll neck top when he replied to an earlier tweet from Mr Lammy about the blackfacing debate. He tweeted a picture of a blackfaced man with the caption: "You're my wife now, Dave".

The man in the picture is Papa Lazarou, a character from an episode of TV show The League of Gentlemen.

In various episodes from the early 2000s, the creepy travelling fairground-styled character played by white actor Reece Shearsmith uses the phrase "You're my wife now" when he tricks women into giving him their wedding rings.

The former government minister had shot back on Twitter just after midnight saying: "Councillor @bobfrost you owe me and my wife an apology.

"You dishonour your wonderful community in North Deal and your country. You should stand down."

At 1.07am Cllr Frost replied: "David, you humourless ****. Had no idea of your marital status. Whilst I no way 'apologise' to either you or wife please pass on to her my sympathy for being married to such a divisive attention seeking fool. Boxed set of 'League of Gentlemen' in post. Best wishes, Bob."

The row had begun on Saturday when Mr Lammy responded to an article in The Guardian saying the designer clothesmakers Gucci had withdrawn a polo neck jumper from its shops.

This was after social media users said the balaclava polo neck with large red lips, resembled blackfacing.

The exchange started after Mr Lammy, a Labour MP, tweeted: "It's disgusting. Why should my children have to grow up in a world where Gucci think it's OK to minstrelise their blackness. Screw your apology. Use your 6.2 billion Euro revenues to make serious amends."

The Papa Lazarou picture had caused an angry response from members of the public in a tweet thread.

David Reid said: "This isn't humour, Bob. Why don't you try using your own words to construct an argument? Sling your hook."

Arun Joshi said: "Wow. Utterly disgraceful."

Mett Hinton said: "Omg! How completely disgraceful Mr Frost. Resign!"

Deal mayor Nick Tomaszewski said: "This latest outrage from Cllr Bob Frost one again brings disgrace and disgust upon our town and Deal Town Council of which he is a member. I am sure I speak for the whole council in deploring and dissociating from his outburst .

"Only he can, somehow, justify his revolting comments towards David Lammy."

Stewart Parker, an independent and a North Deal ward member with Cllr Frost also condemned the tweets

He said: "It is infuriating because it reflects badly on all of us in the council. I find this abhorrent and disgraceful

"I have only been a councillor for five months but I have learned to be careful of what I say. That's Bob for you all over. He crosses the line.

"Why get involved in something that is not his business? He has also upset a gentleman of high repute."

A spokesman for David Lammy told Kent Online today: "The councillor responded to a tweet David posted at the weekend relating to blackface. David doesn’t have anything to add to his tweet."

David Lammy, 46, was born to Guyanese parents in north London and has been the Tottenham MP since 2000.

During the Blair and Brown governments he was Minister for Culture, Media and Sport and then Minister for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Bob Frost, a North Deal district and town councillor, said: "For reasons best known to himself, David Lammy decided that this was worth getting worked up with his usual over-the-top outrage on Twitter and his extraordinary call for monetary compensation from Gucci though he was not specific to whom or for what.

"Lammy has now gone on to ask his followers to boycott other fashion retailers whose output he considers 'racist'.

"I thought the image from Gucci put out by Lammy bore a remarkable similarity to the of Papa Lazarou from The League of Gentlemen whose catchphrase was 'you're my wife now Dave' so I sent it on Twitter to juxtapose the images.

"I'd have done the same if the original image had been put out by a white MP. It struck me as amusing. Still does.

"While I view my community as being made up of male and female, straight and gay, young and old, rich and poor, black and white etc Lammy and his ilk tend to want to split them into arbitrary groups fighting against perceived bias from others and lead by self-appointed community spokespersons.

"Unfortunately, also like many of his ilk, he seem to spend most of his time trying to sniff out 'racism' like some latter day Witchfinder General looking for witches, where both the racists and the witches are merely manifestations of the seekers overactive imagination."

Cllr Frost has been in trouble over tweets and social media activity before.

Last autumn he resigned from the Conservative Party after being suspended because he made a joke about slavery and mocking Liverpool.

He had remarked that Liverpool abortion services were part of its crime prevention. He also said that he had "bought two staff" at the restaurant for the city's International Slavery Museum.

In 2011 he referred to 'Jungle bunnies' after the London Riots and in 2014 he said Labour voters live on a diet of lard and fags. Later that year he referenced "Frogs" and "sons of camel drivers"as bad protential purchasers of the Port of Dover.