A councillor suspended by the Tories over alleged anti-Semitism has refused to explain himself after being confronted by a local democracy reporter.

Derby Telegraph LDR Eddie Bisknell tracked Councillor Philip Rose down at his home after multiple attempts to contact him by other means failed.

The Derbyshire County Council member has been suspended for five years by the Conservative Party after the discovery of social media posts that appear to share anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about “zionist controllers” and attempts at alleged “Jewish supremacism”.

Both Eddie, pictured, and the BBC had attempted to contact Cllr Rose via his listed email address and mobile phone number, but he decided to confront him in person after not receiving a response.

He was greeted at the house in the Derbyshire village of Riddings by a shirtless Cllr Rose, who answered “no” when Eddie asked if he felt his constituents were owed an explanation.

Told constituents and the press had experienced difficulties trying to contact him, the councillor said: “Have they? Well most constituents that I am aware of can get in touch with me, you’ve found me, so there’s no problem with that.”

According to Eddie’s report of the confrontation, Cllr Rose then said he did not “want to talk to the BBC” and “shooed” him away from the door before saying “goodbye”.

Cllr Barry Lewis, Conservative leader of the council, has since called on Cllr Rose to “seriously reflect upon” his position.

Speaking to HTFP, Eddie said: “It’s always good to get down to some bread and butter journalism with a classic door-stop.

“With elected officials this isn’t usually required, but Cllr Rose had not been responding to numerous approaches for comment and I felt the move was justified given the public interest.

“The brief words the shirtless Cllr Rose was willing to provide have led to more questions from critics, including calls for his resignation.”