A Conservative councillor, who is acting as agent for a general election candidate, has been accused of sharing “appalling comments about Jewish people” on social media.

Ben Shirely, agent to Tory candidate Simon Fell in Barrow and Furness, is under investigation by the party for sharing a post on Facebook that referred to "Yid w***ers" and "liked" another post about "faggots" and another that used a derogatory comment about women in the past year.

Mr Shirely, a Barrow Borough councillor, shared a post about a football fixture between Stoke City and Tottenham Hotspur that said "bring it on you yid w***ers".

He also "liked" a friend's post that simply said: “Faggot”.

Alex Sobel, the Labour candidate for Leeds North West, who is Jewish, told the JC: “The Conservatives’ agent in Barrow and Furness shared this appalling comment about Jewish people and liked homophobic slurs, as recently as last year, while he was a sitting councillor.

“Simon Fell should remove him as his agent immediately and apologise for the hurt and offence these comments will have caused to Jewish and LGBT+ communities.

“Following the offensive comments on British Jews by the Tory candidate for Leeds North East and comments about Holocaust 'fabrication' from the Tory candidate for Aberdeen North, the Conservative Party must act on antisemitism within their ranks.”

Mr Fell is running against the Labour Barrow and Furness parliamentary candidate Chris Altree and  Liberal Democrat Loraine Birchall. Chris Loynes is standing for the Green Party and Ged McGrath is running for the Brexit Party.

Former Labour MP for the seat John Woodcock, who resigned from the party last year to sit as an independent and stood down at this election, said he would be voting Conservative and urged others to follow him ealier this month.

A Conservative Party spokesperson said: "This matter is under investigation."