A former Labour Party councillor who reportedly “stifled” local conversations about the Rotherham rape gangs and Muslim grooming scandal has been spotted out campaigning with the party’s candidate Jim McMahon for the Oldham West and Royton by-election. The vote, to be held tomorrow, is believed to be increasingly close, with the UK Independence Party candidate John Bickley snapping at the heels of Mr. McMahon following the death of Labour’s MP Michael Meacher.

Mahroof Hussain, who resigned in February of this year, was spotted campaigning with Mr. McMahon in mid November. Mr. McMahon’s campaign has yet to respond to a week-old request from Breitbart London over the issue.

Mr. Hussain was placed under investigation by his party in February for what the Times newspaper called “his alleged use of bullying and intimidation to stifle discussion of the town’s sex-grooming scandal”.

The paper reported that he was named in a report that criticised “senior Pakistani members of the council” for wielding “disproportionate influence” and said “the council [was] in a state of collective denial about the scale and extent of its failure to protect children from groups of men, largely members of the Pakistani community, who targeted and used them for sex.”

Fantastic support this afternoon @manclabstudents @OldhamRoytonCLP the rain won’t stop us from campaigning!… pic.twitter.com/j4yCQdORmu — Jim McMahon OBE (@CllrJimMcMahon) November 14, 2015

Louise Casey, the director-general of the government’s families programme said staff felt that Mr Hussain had “suppressed discussion” of sensitive issues that might upset “community relations”.

The report added that “Mr Hussain admitted that he had lobbied licensing staff on behalf of taxi drivers, but denied placing undue pressure on council employees”.

Now Mr. Hussain has been spotted campaigning alongside Labour’s Oldham by-election candidate Jim McMahon, who has been under considerable pressure in the seat not least because of his party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s very public nightmare over the Syria debate and his internal party fractures, but also because of his own record as a local councillor.

Mr. McMahon is accused of claiming tens of thousands of pounds in expenses on top of his councillor salary, as well as being the director of a company which appears to be engaging in tax avoidance in Luxembourg.

The Labour campaign failed to respond to Breitbart London when quizzed over Mr. Hussain’s involvement in the campaign.