AN employment solicitor who questioned the Tory leadership candidates during a BBC debate has become the second member of the public to be suspended from their job over historic social media comments.

Aman Thakar, who was the Labour Party candidate in Borough and Bankside in the Southwark local election last year, has been suspended with immediate effect by Leigh Day while the law firm investigates one of his previous tweets.

It is the latest fallout from the BBC debate after one of the other members of the public chosen to question the five candidates, imam Abdullah Patel, was suspended from his mosque and the school where he works amid controversy about his past comments on Israel.

READ MORE: BBC under pressure to apologise over Tory debate audience member

Screenshots taken before Thakar made his Twitter account private showed he once suggested "Hitler's abuse of the term nationalism is, to me a nationalist, the most harmful part of his legacy".

Leigh Day said it was taking the tweet "very seriously".

Thakar, who did not declare his previous Labour affiliation on screen, asked the candidates when they would call a general election after saying they would have "no mandate from the people".

A BBC spokesman said: "A background in politics doesn't disqualify anyone from taking part in a debate show. Last night's questioners held a range of political views and we did not specify these views nor their backgrounds although some chose to do so themselves.

"The last questioner on the debate is a solicitor who was seconded by his law firm to the Labour Party in the past, rather than being a Labour 'staffer'. He is a Labour supporter and once stood as a councillor."

Patel, who has previously spoken on BBC 5 Live, asked the contenders about Islamophobia during the TV debate on Tuesday evening.

He has been criticised for past tweets in which he said "every political figure on the Zionist's payroll is scaring the world about Corbyn".

He also shared an image endorsing the relocation of Israel to the US as a way of solving the Israel/Palestine conflict.

The BBC said Patel would not have been selected for the programme if it had been aware of his previous comments, and said his Twitter account had been deactivated ahead of his appearance – meaning the old tweets could not be read.

Statement on BBC debate programme, Our Next Prime Minister. #BBCOurNextPM pic.twitter.com/wn6Go63ujJ — BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) June 19, 2019

The executive members of the Masjid e Umar mosque in Gloucester said: "We have decided to act immediately and have chosen to give him some time away to allow us the opportunity to conduct a detailed investigation into this matter.

"This is the official stance of the mosque's executive committee and we hope you respect our right to privacy as we conduct this deeply sensitive investigation."

Al-Ashraf Primary School in Gloucester said in a statement posted on its website that it had suspended Patel, who is the deputy headteacher, from all school duties.

Rob Burley, who edited the programme, tweeted: "It was AFTER the show that Mr Patel reactivated his account revealing his tweets.

"We wouldn't have put him on the programme if these were public before broadcast, but they were not. We also carried out a number of other routine checks which didn't uncover anything untoward."

Patel has taken down his Twitter account again after the past tweets came to light.

Earlier, BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Nicky Campbell, who had Patel on his breakfast show, apologised and said the imam had made "extremely disturbing" remarks on Twitter and that he was "sorry" the broadcaster had not checked beforehand.

Campbell tweeted: "I would like to apologise. We had the Imam from the BBC Tory leadership debate on our programme this morning.

"His social media comments have been extremely disturbing. We should have checked. We didn't. I'm sorry."