Three Labour election candidates for the same council have been suspended for sharing allegedly antisemitic material, the JC has learned.

Virginia Keyes, Jack Critchlow and Danni Passmore are among the 16 Labour candidates standing for Torbay Council in Devon.

They were all suspended after the April 4 deadline for registration for May's local elections, making it too late to remove any from the ballot.

As the JC reported at the weekend, Ms Keyes had shared extreme anti-Jewish statements online, once posting a video to Facebook about a "New World Order of Zionist Jews".

She also cast doubt on Jewish MP Luciana Berger's need for police protection at Labour Conference, writing of Jewish MPs: "Boy can they play dirty."

On social media, Mr Passmore shared an antisemitic conspiracy theory about the supposed Rothschild financing of the Nazis as well as the claim Israel "destroyed Palestine" and then was "behind 9/11 and the resulting wars". 

Mr Critchlow has written that "at the general election no one will give a flying f**k about antisemitism", that the “comparatively irrelevant antisemitic issue is merely being used to undermine Corbyn" and that "every member of Labour, including MPs" who "supports this brutal Zionist Israeli government" to be "immediately suspended and required to justify their views".

He also referred to "fifth columnists" in the party.

A Labour spokeswoman said she could not comment on individual cases.

She added: "The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms.

"All complaints about antisemitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken. We can’t comment on individual cases.

“Individuals who are suspended from the party can’t stand as party candidates. Due to electoral laws, those who are suspended after the deadline can’t be removed from the register, but they are not party candidates."

A party source said it was not backing the three candidates' campaigns and that, if any were elected, they would sit as independents.

Local elections take place across England and Northern Ireland on May 2. Torbay Council currently has no Labour councillors.