A royal rumpus has broke out at South Kesteven District Council concerning a tribute to Prince Philip from its leader Kelham Cooke.

The row follows opposition councillor Ashley Baxter suggesting the council leader has broken 'purdah' rules which aim to prevent elected members from using their roles to gain unfair advantage in the run up to an election.

Both the district councillors, Cooke and Baxter, are standing as candidates, though in separate wards, for the May 6 Lincolnshire County Council elections.

Coun Baxter (Ind- market and West Deeping) has contacted the Chief Executive Karen Bradford since as Returning Officer for the elections, she is responsible for how they are conducted.

The tribute was made in an email sent out to businesspeople to report that this Thursday's online InvestSK 'tea break' meeting would be cancelled as a mark of respect to the Duke of Edinburgh.

But Coun Baxter said in an email to Mrs Bradford the tribute "is a clear breach of the rules of purdah by using a Council owned company to promote a Conservative election candidate."

He continued: "I have no problem with the content of the message and agree that the tea-break should be cancelled. In fact, one has to ask who's idea it was in the first place to schedule a meeting for businesses just three weeks before a set of elections?

"However, there is no good reason why the InvestSK corporate salute to HRH Duke of Edinburgh should have been sent in the name of an election candidate, or any politician. You could easily have signed it off as the non-partisan Director, or in the name of the Chief Executive of SK or any of the cast of InvestSK. The message now looks like a shoddy attempt to make political capital out of the death of a respected member of the Royal Family."

"Furthermore, A perceived lack of accountability and objectiveness of InvestSK has always been an issue for InvestSK, this kind of mistake only compounds the problem.

"I look forward to hearing an explanation of how this was allowed to happen."

Mrs Bradford has emailed Coun Baxter to say she will provide a full explanation after considering the matter.

In the meantime, Coun Cooke (Con-Casewick) has hit back at the opposition councillor.

He said: "I am both sad and disappointed that you would even suggest, or think of anyone trying to make 'political capital' on the death of HRH The Duke Of Edinburgh. This statement simply expresses my condolences as Chairman of InvestSK to the businesses across the District.

"The 'Tea Break' events are held on a very regular basis and would have been led by our team of dedicated officers who have been assisting and advising businesses on a near daily basis, as they have done throughout the last year. However as the Country is officially in mourning until next Saturday, it was the right thing to cancel this support meeting for businesses."

Coun Cooke added: "I will not be commenting further and leave the official response to your email from the Chief Executive."