A local election candidate who has repeatedly stood for the Tories in north Manchester has been dropped by the party at the last minute after the Manchester Evening News uncovered a stream of racist posts dating back years.

Charalampos Kagouras called Rusholme's Curry Mile the ‘P*** mile’ on Twitter earlier this month.

In 2017 he wrote: "F*** Muslims and their mosques...confiscate their British passports."

Since last summer, the Charlestown hopeful has variously urged others to prepare for ‘religious war’; called for white people to unite against ‘the one and only enemy…Islam’; and has argued that white people are the only ‘true’ Europeans.

Mr Kagouras stood for the Conservatives in Cheetham last year, as well as in Miles Platting and Newton Heath in 2015 and 2016, then under the first name Harry.

This year, he was selected to stand in Charlestown on May 2.

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After the M.E.N. highlighted his social media history, the party today said he had been dropped as its candidate and called his posts 'unacceptable'.

Mr Kagouras strenuously denies being Islamophobic.

He said he has Muslim friends and merely opposes Islamic terrorism, adding that his tweets have been misunderstood because English is his second language.

His posts, which have surfaced just two days before Thursday's elections, will be particularly embarrassing for the Conservative Party as it battles allegations of institutional Islamaphobia as a result of racist online comments by party members.

An M.E.N. analysis of Mr Kagouras's social media accounts shows repeated racist posts going back years, mostly directed at Muslims.

On April 15, in reply to a story about ISIS fighter Shamima Begum, he wrote: “I've been in Manchester since the 90s every year it's worse and worse. Now we have 2-3 no go areas, the P**i mile, and Cheetham Hill.”

A few weeks earlier, shortly before local election nominations had closed, he complained that Muslim preachers were playing ‘ISIS’ music on Market Street.

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On New Year’s Eve, months before being selected again by the party, he wrote in response to a post about Syrians living in Germany: “We allow it to happen. Now it is too late. We must prepare for religious war.”

A few weeks before that, in reply to a story about German schools teaching children about headscarves, he wrote: "How about teach the f*** [sic] Muslims how to get the f*** out of Europe before getting kicked out."

In October, he tweeted that ‘by throwing out the white Europeans and the British whites not procreating you’re losing the battle against Islam’, adding that Brexit has ‘turned the British whites against the European whites’, rather than ‘against the one and only enemy… the Islam’.

A month earlier, he said Europe should be given ‘back to the white people’, who he added were the ‘true and olny [sic] Europeans’.

In August, he said Muslims were ‘murders’ [sic], while in November 2017, he wrote: “This is Britain. F*** Muslims, and their mosques. Confiscate their British passports. Non [sic] of them is worthy of them send them back starting from the mayor of London," assumed to be a reference to Sadiq Khan.

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At around the same time, he complained on Twitter that he had been ‘banned’ from Facebook ‘for saying my opinion out loud’.

He does still have an active Facebook page, however, which includes posts confirming his previous Conservative candidacy for Miles Platting and Newton Heath, at that time under the name Harry Kagouris.

On Facebook a few weeks ago, he posted a picture of Adolf Hitler with Jeremy Corbyn’s face superimposed on it, alongside a list of ways he claims the two are politically and personally alike.

Mr Kagouras came eighth out of eight candidates in Cheetham during last year’s all-out local elections, polling 1.5pc of the vote for the Tories.

In 2016 he came second in Miles Platting and Newton Heath with 8pc of the vote. A year earlier, when the Conservatives won the general election, he polled 11pc in the same ward.

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The Tories have been under growing pressure in recent weeks to tackle what Conservative Muslim peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi called 'institutional racism' in March, following the suspension of 14 members over offensive social media posts.

After being contacted by the M.E.N, a Conservative Party spokesman said the party had dropped Mr Kagouris, but added he would still have to be listed as a Tory on the ballot paper due to the last-minute nature of the decision.

“Nominations for local government candidates have closed. Electoral law dictates that after the deadline has passed candidates cannot be removed from the ballot or their details changed," he said.

"However, Mr Kagouras is no longer a Conservative Party candidate and would not be allowed to join the Conservative group if elected.

"The Conservative Party does not tolerate any form of racism or discrimination and language such as this is totally unacceptable.”

Mr Kagouras deleted his Twitter page soon after being contacted by the M.E.N.

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Asked about his social media posts and the party’s decision, Mr Kagouris, who is originally from Greece, said in a message: “I am NOT Islamophobic. I have Muslim friends.

“My country was occupied by the Ottoman Empire for 400 years and the new Turkish government murdered a million Greeks.

“What I opposed is Islamist terrorism like ISIS, because my written English is NOT good some of my social media can be taken the wrong way.

“I've been accused of homophobia, that's NOT true. I did tweet supporting marriage between man and woman. Is that wrong?

“I am NOT racist I have friends from all over the world, in every city in the world.

“The reality is that we living [sic] with people from everywhere. I accept that or I would NOT be living in Manchester.

“The party dismissed me as a candidate and I now understand why, and I accept the decision.”