The only Asian member of Birmingham City Council's ruling cabinet has been sacked.
Talib Hussain was ousted at a stormy meeting of the Liberal Democrat group, where colleagues overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in his ability to run the local services and community safety portfolio.
His cabinet membership will be formally rescinded today by council leader Mike Whitby.
Coun Hussain (Lib Dem Sparkbrook) said he was fired because a decision to cancel a £6,000 grant to the Bangladeshi Welfare Association, taken in June during the Aston by-election campaign, was thought by Lib Dem councillors to have handed a propaganda coup to Labour.
He hit back last night, describing his colleagues as "bullies" who tried to force him to take decisions about grants that would benefit the Liberal Democrats politically.
The BWA was a failing organisation which had consistently refused to hold an annual meeting and was unable to provide its accounts and files for inspection by the council, he said.
He described the pressure applied by Liberal Democrat councillors: "They were saying it was by-election time and I should have funded the BWA or delayed stopping the grant."
A former actor, Coun Hussain's main claim to fame before entering politics was to have played the part of a villain in the James Bond film Octopussy.
Paul Tilsley, Liberal Democrat group leader and deputy leader of the city council, said the vote of no confidence in Coun Hussain had been carried with a very large majority.
Coun Tilsley (Sheldon) added: "I am not going to get involved in a slanging match with Coun Hussain via the media.
