We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again.

Tamkeen Shaikh, who is standing for the Conservatives in Barking, has highlighted a highly inflammatory text sent round in support of Labour to British Muslims demanding that they vote for Corbyn’s party. The round robin text to British Muslims, which carried details of how to register to vote but was not officially from Labour, pointed out the Indian Hindus will be voting Conservative “to punish Labour” for voting to support Kashmiris at the last annual conference. It even named an owner of a restaurant in Leicester who had been encouraging Hindus to vote Conservative and called on Muslims to boycott his business.

‘I am not a racist in any form’ Corbyn apologises for anti-Semitism

Mrs Shaikh likened Labour’s tactics to the ones used in her native India which has led to violence between different religious groups.

The 40-year-old journalist from the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, who first came as a student to the UK 14 years ago, has also dismissed claims that the Conservatives and Boris Johnson are Islamophobic.

She insisted that Islamophobia is “a problem created by Labour”.

She said: “Back home in India, politicians’ business is dividing the communities. That is what they do between Hindus and Muslims.

“That is what Labour is trying to instigate over here. I was so upset.

“I told a friend ‘a party that is fighting an election dividing the communities is not the right party to vote.’ A party that thinks about progress and inclusive that’s the party.”

The mother of two, who wears a hijab, said she had not been offended by a controversial article written by Boris Johnson defending women wearing the burka but describing it as looking like “a letter box”.