Bradford Council leader David Green has spoken for the first time about claims of a Council cover-up over Paul Flowers’ resignation.

Coun Green admitted there were “legitimate questions” about how the Labour administration of the time acted when adult material was discovered on the Reverend Flowers’ Council computer.

And he acknowledged he now had to “rebuild faith” in the authority, after the damaging revelations of the past few days.

At the time, Mr Flowers’ resignation as a Labour councillor in 2011 was attributed by the Labour group to time pressures as he juggled his Council work with his financial role as chairman of the Co-operative Bank.

But on Tuesday, Bradford Council revealed that adult material had been found on Mr Flowers’ Council laptop and when confronted, he had resigned immediately.

Ian Greenwood, who led the Council at the time but is now no longer a councillor, remained unavailable for comment yesterday.

Coun Green said he could not answer questions about Mr Flowers’ resignation because he had not been leading the authority at the time. He said: “What I have been trying to do over the last 18 months is change the culture and direction of the way that the Council operates.

“There have been things that have happened in the past that people have got legitimate questions about but they did happen before my time in leadership and unfortunately I’m not able to give those detailed responses that people legitimately want.

“I am more interested in making sure that we can rebuild faith in Bradford Council is trying to do.”

But Coun Green said there was no suggestion that Mr Flowers had acted illegally while serving as a councillor and said “appropriate action was taken”.

Police have now searched the Great Horton, Bradford, home of Mr Flowers, who resigned as chairman of the Co-op Bank in May and who was filmed allegedly buying illegal drugs including crystal meth, crack cocaine and ketamine.

The Methodist Church yesterday announced it had suspended Mr Flowers indefinitely from his church duties. Previously, it had announced he had been given a three-week suspension.

A spokesman said: “The Rev Paul Flowers has now been suspended indefinitely as part of our complaints and discipline process. This replaces his earlier suspension.

“We always wait for any police investigation or court proceedings to conclude before moving forward with the complaints process, and so there will be no further action until then.

“Paul is being offered pastoral care, and we ask for prayers for all involved in this matter.”

West Yorkshire Police is investigating the allegations that Mr Flowers was filmed arranging a drug deal. A spokesman for the force said: “Officers executed a search warrant at an address in Hollingwood Lane, Great Horton, Bradford, as part of an investigation into alleged drugs offences arising from a national Sunday newspaper story.”

But the force refused to say whether anything illegal had been found in this raid.

Mr Flowers’ whereabouts have not been made public and the Methodist Church said church leaders do not know where he is.

Yesterday, no police activity could be seen at his home and there was no answer at the door.