A Tory councillor has been expelled from the party after openly supporting an independent anti HS2 election candidate.

Bob Burns-Green formally proposed Sandra MacDonald to stand for election in the Little Missenden ward on Chiltern District Council, despite having been a member of the Conservative party for 50 years.

Cllr Burns-Green had intended to resign from the party in protest at their national support for HS2, which cuts through his council ward.

But he was pushed before he could walk, and was formally expelled by the Buckinghamshire Conservative group at the end of March.

Cllr Burns-Green - who is now officially listed as an independent member for Chiltern District Council on the authority's website - had not intended to stand for election for a third time but was also unhappy at Tory HQ's decision to field a candidate who lives in Chesham in his ward at next month's poll.

He told the Bucks Free Press: "I decided to leave the Conservative party because of HS2. Not because of anything that's happened locally with HS2, but simply because, having written several times to the Prime Minister and having lobbied as much as I possibly could to have it stopped, I felt I had failed.

"I felt I got no satisfactory answer from the Cameron government on HS2 - therefore as a matter of principle I have left the Conservative party.

"The local Conservative party in Beaconsfield have selected a candidate to stand who doesn't live in the ward and has never lived in the ward - they have been parachuted in from outside. That's something I object to.

"My objection to this candidate means I have openly supported an independent candidate to stand in the ward.

"As a result, although my intention was to leave the Conservative party, I have been formally expelled as a member because I have supported a local candidate - somebody who has lived in the ward and been a champion of the ward for many years."

Cllr Burns-Green, who has been a councillor since 2007, added: "I expected it. If you are a member of the Conservative party, as I have been for 50 years, if you suddenly start supporting somebody from another party, they take a very dim view of that."

He said he is confident Mrs MacDonald can defeat Conservative candidate Diana Varley - her only opponent - in May's election.

He said: "She has lived in Little Kingshill for many years, has been chairman of the Little Kingshill Village Society and is a well-known campaigner against HS2.

"I'm extremely well-known in Hyde Heath, having lived here for 30 years, and between us we will garner a significant amount of support.

"Local people in Hyde Heath are hugely sympathetic to the view I have taken, and people in Little Kingshill are hugely supportive to the independent candidate. I'm reasonably confident they will make a very good showing at the election."

Cllr Burns-Green's expulsion means he is now no longer a member of Chiltern District Council's appeals and complaints committee.

Meanwhile in Great Missenden there is another straight battle between an independent anti HS2 candidate and a Conservative.

This time it is the independent who is the sitting councillor, with Seb Berry looking to defend his seat against the Conservative party's Steve Hayes.