A Conservative Heswall councillor has clashed with political rivals over comments made in a meeting earlier this week.

During a break at Monday night's meeting of Wirral Council, members discussed Labour's Make Misogyny a Hate Crime motion, which called on Merseyside Police to record the harassment of women and girls as a hate crime.

A transcript of what was said during the break, which was not broadcast to the public, shows that councillor Andrew Hodson said: "You know there's been more men than women murdered. Do you know that in fact?"

This prompted anger among other councillors, including Independent member Moira McLaughlin, who said: "Not gonna start that debate, are we? Totally, totally counterproductive?"

Cllr Hodson replied by saying: "only sticking to the facts, that was all."

But Cllr McLaughlin accused him of missing the point and, although Cllr Hodson disagreed, council leader Janette Williamson and her Labour colleague Christine Spriggs signalled their agreement with her point.

Taking to Twitter after the meeting, Labour councillor Samantha Frost said:

"Had to call for a card vote tonight on our motion to Make Misogyny a Hate Crime due to vile comments made by a Wirral Tory before the webcast was live.

"Sexual harassment doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's enabled by everyday sexism."

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service today, Cllr Hodson sought to explain his comments, saying they were not meant as a criticism of the motion on misogyny - something he fully supported and voted for.

The Heswall member said he was 'just stating a fact' and that he supported the Labour motion, but was unable to as he was interrupted by several other councillors.

He accused Cllr Williamson of 'jumping down his throat' and said he felt bullied by the councillors who were not letting him finish.

Cllr Kathy Hodson, Andrew's wife, is also a Heswall councillor. She questioned whether she would have received the same attention as a woman if she had made the same comment and added that facts cannot be misogynistic.

But council leader Janette Williamson called Cllr Andrew Hodson's explanation "laughable".

Cllr Williamson said: "It is disappointing that on the very night our motion around misogyny and male violence was to be, Cllr Hodson chose to openly disregard the experiences of women at the hands of abusive men.

"His comments showed a clear lack of understanding and empathy with female victims of male violence and I suggest that he apologises for such crass insensitivity.

"These comments were made at a time where the public cameras were off, which might lead people to question if he would have voiced his opinions in the same way had he been speaking publicly.

"As for his laughable comment that he was somehow trying to agree by disagreeing or misspoke, he had ample time to clarify his point, and indeed followed up by saying 'only sticking to the facts, that was all'.

"I might suggest that in hindsight he realised what he had said was unacceptable and perhaps now he is trying to backtrack, where he would be better to simply apologise."