An East Kilbride councillor who was elected to the Scottish Parliament is to take two salaries totalling more than £75,000.

Graham Simpson became a Conservative MSP on the Central Scotland regional list and will now get a wage of £58,000.

He is also paid around £17,000 by South Lanarkshire Council but will not hand his earnings back despite huge cuts in local government funding.

The Tories saw seven of their councillors elevated to Holyrood and six of them will hand over their council salary.

Douglas Ross and Alexander Stewart will decline remuneration while Ross Thomson, Maurice Corry, Finlay Carson and Jeremy Balfour are expected to give the cash to charities.

But East Kilbride West Councillor Graham Simpson has put himself at odds with the party by confirming he will take a salary as a councillor and an MSP in the coming year, despite meetings of South Lanarkshire Council and the Scottish Parliament regularly clashing.

A Scottish Conservative source close to the leadership, who asked not to be named, said: “It has been made very clear by the party that those who are both councillors and MSPs are expected not to benefit from a council salary.”

Mr Simpson confirmed his decision today but declined to offer an explanation.

He said: “No comment…but your information is correct.”

The SNP saw four councillors become MSPs, two Scottish Labour councillors were elected to the Scottish Parliament and one Scottish Green MSP is also a councillor.

Central Scotland Labour MSP Monica Lennon, who represents the South Lanarkshire ward of Hamilton North and East, said: “I have informed the council that they will not need to go to the trouble and expense of holding a by-election, which would cost taxpayers around £35,000.

“It's a personal choice, but I have also decided not to take my council salary of just under £17,000 for the remainder of my time as councillor.

“At a time when people across Central Scotland are bearing the brunt of SNP and Tory cuts to public services, I’m disappointed that Graham Simpson, who must see the impact of these cuts in South Lanarkshire like I do, has decided to keep both salaries.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives confirmed that all seven councillors who were elected MSPs will not step down and all but one will not take a local government salary.

He added: “Given it's less than a year until the local government elections, I'd be surprised if anyone did step down.”

But the SNP could yet force a by-election in four Scottish wards with newly elected MSPs Gail Ross, Mairi Evans, Fulton MacGregor and Ruth Maguire unable to confirm whether they will stand down.

That would see contests fought in Wick in the Highlands, Brechin and Edzell in Angus, Coatbridge North and Glenboig in North Lanarkshire and Irvine West in North Ayrshire.

A spokesman for the SNP declined to comment on whether the councillors would continue to claim a local government wage of around £17,000 on top of their MSP salary of £58,000.

“Our new MSPs are currently in the process of setting up their constituency offices, hiring staff and arranging surgeries,” said the spokesman. “The four new MSPs who are currently councillors will be setting out their plans in the near future.”