A former hostage of the Libyan Government has questioned a Westminster councillor's attendance at a party to celebrate the coup which brought communist dictator Colonel Gaddafi to power.

Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Frances Blois, attended Tuesday's party at The Dorchester hotel, in honour of the 39th Anniversary of The Great Al-Fateh Revolution - which parachuted Muammar al-Gaddafi to leadership of the North African state.

While relations between Britain and Libya have thawed over recent years there is still resentment over the Lockerbie bombing  and the 1984 fatal shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, outside the Libyan embassy in St James's Square, Belgravia.

And this week's party raised uncomfortable memories for a victim of the regime, Robin Plummer, who was taken hostage by for nine months in 1999 while working as a building engineer in Tripoli. He did not see his wife or three young children for nine months beforehis release and spent 10 weeks in solitary confiment, an experience hesays tested him to the limit.

"If she (Deputy Lord Mayor) has been instructed to accept the invite for the sake of diplomatic relations with Libya then we must be pragmatic - although it leaves a sour taste in the mouth," said the 57-year-old engineer, who has just finished the first draft of a autobiography; "A Brush With Madness"

"But if the council sent a representative to this bash for their own self-aggrandisement they need to get real because the Libyans have a very sophisticated propaganda machine. Celebrating revolutions, let alone of this kind, is not something normally associated with this country."

Defending cllr Blois's acceptance of the Libyan Embassy's invite, a Westminster Council spokesman said the role of Lord Mayor was to carry out the duties on behalf of the Crown.