The controversial appointment comes five-and-a-half years after the Ravensthorpe councillor served half of a two-month prison sentence for his part in a £3,000 housing benefit fiddle.

Two key Conservative members of the council, outgoing mayor Marion Todd and former mayor Michael Burton, abstained – refusing to endorse the selection. And another three Tories – Cllrs Fran Benton, Piers Croft and Peter Hiller – stayed away from last night's meeting.

But council leader John Peach said: "Pat Nash has been deputy mayor and is in her fifth year of serving the council. She works very hard in her ward and is quite a straight-talking person.

"She is very involved with local groups and organisations, and I'm sure she will do a very good job.

"Gul Nawaz also works very hard in his ward and has been a councillor for a long time, and I imagine he will do his best."

Prior to the meeting, fears had been raised that the selection of Cllr Nawaz would further harm Peterborough's reputation following the high-profile jailing of the former mayor Mohammad Choudhary for rigging votes in the 2004 election.

Despite the controversy, it would have taken a Conservative rebellion to stop Cllr Nawaz becoming deputy mayor after party members were ordered to vote for their colleague, regardless of their personal standpoint.

In a terse e-mail, Conservative Group Chief Whip Cllr Matthew Dalton ordered members to support the nominations, and if they disagreed not to turn up to the full council meeting.

The e-mail said: "Some group members appear to believe that the votes on the mayoralty and deputy mayoralty will be free. This is not the case.

"Every Conservative member present will be expected to vote in favour of our nominees for mayor and deputy mayor – being Cllrs Nash and Nawaz respectively.

"Were colleagues to feel that they not could vote with the whip on either of the above individuals, then they are not to be present at the 6.30pm meeting.

"Under no circumstances are colleagues to abstain or vote against the above individuals."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the council chamber, seven councillors, including the city's three Liberal Democrats and four members of the newly-established Peterborough Independent Forum, opposed the appointment.

A boo from the public gallery overlooking the town hall when Cllr Nawaz's name was read out was followed by cheers minutes later when his appointment was confirmed.

Following the meeting, Cllr Nawaz called the coverage in yesterday's Evening Telegraph "unfair", while other Conservative councillors pointed out that Cllr Nawaz's crime pre-dated his role as a city councillor.

Cllr Nawaz even won support from the Labour benches, with Cllr Zahid Hussain declaring: "A crime was committed and a penalty has been served.