A Jeremy Corbyn supporter who was born a man has been appointed as a Labour women’s officer – despite being embroiled in a furious row for making shockingly offensive sexual remarks to a political colleague with opposing views on trans rights.

The storm blew up after the Corbynista, who self-identifies as a woman, used Twitter to tell one campaigner to go ‘suck my big lady c***’.

After the target of the abuse made a formal complaint to Labour, the abuser was defended by their local party as ‘vulnerable’ and promoted to the new position which involves encouraging women to join the party and speaking up for women’s issues.

A high profile follower of Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of making disgraceful comments on Twitter

The case has led to fury among feminists, who say that any non-transgender man who made the same remark would have been severely disciplined.

The extraordinary dispute comes amid a growing row within Labour over whether transgender individuals should be allowed to stand on all-women shortlists. A Government consultation over whether the Gender Recognition Act should be amended to allow people to legally change gender by self-identifying – removing the need to go through a long medical process – closed on Friday.

It has triggered a bitter debate between feminists and transgender activists over whether transgender women, who were born male, should be placed in the same category as biological females.

The Corbynista targeted another Labour campaigner on the ‘trans spectrum’ for distributing leaflets that questioned on safety grounds the decision of the Girl Guides to accept boys who identify as girls and allow them to sleep in the same rooms.

The alleged abuser told the leafletter on Twitter: ‘Guess what legally I am a woman and there is f*** all you and your #terf mates can do about it. Lol so go suck my big lady c***.’

The transgender activist, who is known to Mr Corbyn, has angered party feminists

Terf, which stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist, is used as a derogatory term to describe those who believe that ‘identifying’ as a woman is not the same as being born a woman.

The Mail on Sunday is choosing not to identify either the Corbynista or the victim.

The message recipient says that despite complaining about the remarks two months ago, Labour has not only refused to take action – it made the abuser a women’s officer.

‘If a biological male had sent such tweets to a woman they would be facing severe disciplinary or expulsion from the Labour Party and possible criminal proceedings. I feel that Labour have normalised such behaviour for trans people on the grounds of politically correctness.

‘Jeremy Corbyn should personally see that the standards set out by Labour NEC as regards party members bullying and harassing must be upheld.

‘As an individual on the trans spectrum myself I do understand women’s concerns about changes to the Gender Recognition Act’.

The abuser’s local party said last week that it had ‘received communications… relating to historic comments made on social media by a vulnerable member’, adding that ‘now that this member has been elected as an officer, the local party will be supporting this member in their new role, including reviewing expectations regarding conduct on social media’.

The Corbynista women’s officer said: ‘I have had a colourful life and I don’t deny that but… I do regret that comment and others I made to him because I lowered myself to his level.’