An editor has apologised after his newspaper accidentally published a picture of a councillor from a different country on its front page.

Leicester City Council member Ross Grant was surprised to find himself on the front page of Glasgow-based pro-Scottish independence daily The National.

The newspaper had mixed up Councillor Grant, a Conservative, with his namesake who represnts Labour on Aberdeen City Council.

The National had splashed on a story about Labour and Tory councillors in Aberdeen forming a deal to run the authority in order to deny the SNP power.

But, taking the error in good humour, the English Cllr Grant told the Leicester Mercury: “They say all publicity is good publicity. I actually thought it was pretty funny. A Conservative pro-Union councillor on the front of a SNP supporting paper.

“I’ve never had any involvement with politics in Scotland but I am actually half Scottish. My family on the Scottish side came down to work in the steel works in Corby. I am not ashamed of my Scottish links but I am a strong supporter of the union.”

Coun Grant added: “I’d like to get my hands on the copy. I don’t think it’s sold in Leicester so I might have to pop down to Corby to see if I can get one.

“I might hang it on the wall of my downstairs loo. It’s not every day you get on the front of a national newspaper. I think they’ve either used my official council picture or something that was taken for the Conservative party.

“Either way I’m enjoying my new status as the rising star of Aberdeen politics.”

The National’s consulting editor Richard Walker blamed a failure in the picture captioning process for the error.

He told the Mercury: “We can only apologise. We go to great lengths to ensure errors like this don’t happen but this is one that has got through the net.”