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A senior Conservative councillor has been suspended by his party following a Twitter race row with a fellow party member.

Clr Bernard McGuin, Almondbury Tory and deputy political chair of the Huddersfield Conservatives, has been suspended pending an investigation, a Conservative spokesman said today (Wednesday).

This week Clr McGuin has been criticised by the Far Right Watch group for a now-deleted tweet sent in 2014.

It’s claimed he tweeted: “Oh yes, let’s allow a bunch of fascist Muslim murdering b*****s to take over instead, terrific”.

It’s not clear what he was responding to.

He was criticised by Itrat Ali, who stood for the Conservatives in the Huddersfield constituency in the 2015 general election, who said: “Totally disgusted if this is true. As a member of Dewsbury conservative, urge Huddersfield members to take appropriate action, racism is not acceptable in any form or towards any individual.”

But after being called out by the Far Right Watch group he defended himself, saying: “I was talking about Isis in 2014.”

Since the group criticised Clr McGuin, commentators have been pulling up his tweets, some of which have also been deleted.

In one, on June 11 2017, he wrote: “Why do you not attack Muslims who are anti gay, anti abortion and anti feminist who 90% vote @UKLabour.. oh wait, I see”.

He also tweeted in response to a photo of a semi-clad woman on a beach: “Did you mean No1 b***h?” when someone tweeted the beach had been voted number 1 in the UK.

The Examiner invited Clr McGuin to explain the tweet. He eventually directed us to the Conservative HQ who we’d already contacted.

Today (Weds) a Conservative spokesman said: “Bernard McGuin has been suspended from the party pending an investigation.”