A local councillor has been suspended from the Labour Party over a series of antisemitic tweets.
Aysegul Gurbuz is alleged to have praised Adolf Hitler, calling him the “greatest man in history”, and said she hoped Israel would be wiped out by an Iranian nuclear bomb.
But Ms Gurbuz, a 20-year-old student who became Luton’s youngest councillor when she was elected last year, denied she had written the tweets.
According to the Daily Mail, she claimed her sister had posted them.
The tweets, dating from 2011-2014, were uncovered by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA).
One message, from January 2013, said: “The Jews are so powerful in the US it’s disgusting.”
Another, in October 2012, said: “Ed Miliband is Jewish. He will never become prime minister of Britain.”
The tweet describing Hitler as the “greatest man in history” was posted in October 2011.
Ms Gurbuz, who studies politics at Warwick University and is events officer for the campus Friends of Palestine Society, is reported to have told the CAA that she was shocked that the messages had appeared on her account.
She said: “It was a joint account I had with my sister so I don’t know if she’s gone out and tweeted that, but I’m absolutely appalled right now.
“Where I live we’ve got very good cohesion with the Jewish community... I’m absolutely shocked.”
A Labour spokesman said: ‘Councillor Gurbuz has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.’
Trevor Holden, chief executive of Luton Borough Council, said that the matter would be investigated.
He said: “This will be referred as a matter of urgency to the council’s independent standards committee to allow a full investigation to take place.
“The council expects the highest standards of councillors and will not accept any behaviour which could undermine community cohesion.”
