Ukip has suspended a local election candidate over comments attributed to her which attacked Zionists and accused Jews of engineering the Second World War.

Comments appeared on Facebook in the name of Anna-Marie Crampton encouraging followers to "read the Protocols of Zion, all you need to know is in there and it's in their own words".

Israel was "created with the full support and backing of the duped citizens of the world," the comments claimed.

The Facebook account from which the remarks were posted in February also carries images of Ms Crampton posing alongside Ukip leader Nigel Farage.

In a statement Ukip said it was "appalled" by the comments and had suspended her from running as a party candidate.

Ms Crampton responded to the news by tweeting: "I'm not antisemetic. I never said I do not believe in the Holocaust. I've clearly been 'trolled'. I do post on Zionism as a political movement.

"Further, my great-grandmother was Jewish on my mother's side."

A Ukip spokeswoman said: "Anti-Zionist conspiracy theory is not welcome in Ukip. Indeed, we are confused as to why a party like Ukip would be seen by anyone as a suitable vehicle for someone holding these sorts of views.

"While she will still be on the ballot paper as a Ukip candidate we want voters in her district to realise that she is not representing the party and the people of east Sussex.

"Rest assured that her views are not held by the party and do not reflect the views of our other excellent candidates.

"While we have vigorous selection procedures in place for Westminster and European elections, in these county council elections we have to some degree had to rely on good judgment and goodwill of our local branches who wanted to ensure that all Ukip supporters had a candidate to vote for."

Ms Crampton is standing in next week's elections in the Crowborough ward of East Sussex County Council.

The posts on the social networking site claimed that: "The Second World Wide War was engineered by the Zionist Jews and financed by the banksters to make the general public all over the world feel so guilty and outraged by the Holocaust that a treaty would be signed to create the State of Israel as we know it today."

They added: "Only the Zionists could sacrifice their own in the gas chambers."

Further posts claimed Zionists were "psychopaths" who "hide behind and use the Jews. It was thanks to them that six million Jews were murdered in the war".

The Brighton Argus newspaper said it had made repeated attempts to contact Ms Crampton for a comment but that she was unavailable.

A Twitter account in Ms Crampton's name has repeatedly featured links to items critical of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians.