Two Labour council candidates are under investigation after an anti-Semitic Facebook post was apparently shared and 'liked' by party members.

Labour North has confirmed that two candidates standing for election in Redcar and Cleveland are under investigation after one shared and another 'liked' an image described by The Holocaust Educational Trust as being "blatantly anti-Semitic".

Screen grabs - seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service - appear to show that Denise Addison, Labour's candidate for Longbeck, shared the post at 8.31pm on February 26.

In another screen grab, Sheila Argument, Labour candidate for Loftus, appears to have 'liked' the same post.

The post does not currently appear on Ms Addison's Facebook page.

The image featured the controversial mural, Freedom for Humanity, which was painted in 2012 near Brick Lane in London’s East End by American graffiti artist Kalen Ockerman, also known as Mear One.

It features a group of "bankers" or "businessmen" playing a game similar to Monopoly on a board propped up on the backs of naked "slaves".

The caricatures of the "businessmen" have been widely condemned as replicating anti-Semitic representations of Jewish men and the image as a whole has been criticised for propagating conspiracy theories about a Jewish plot to dominate financial institutions.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn apologised last year when it emerged he had questioned why the mural had been scrubbed off in 2012.

He later went on to say: "I sincerely regret that I did not look more closely at the image I was commenting on, the contents of which are deeply disturbing and anti-Semitic."

A Labour Party spokesman confirmed that "the people concerned" - including Ms Addison and Ms Argument - are under investigation.

(Image: PA)

He said: "The Labour Party takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms.

"All complaints about anti-Semitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken."

Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, Simon Clarke, called for the members involved to be expelled from the Labour Party.

"This image is horrible and plays to all the anti-Semitic tropes that have sadly become commonplace in Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party," he said.

"Coming the week after the Equality and Human Rights Commission announced it is investigating Labour for unlawful discrimination against the Jewish community, it is further evidence of how far the rot has set in.

"There can be no question Labour must make sure these people do not stand in their name in May's elections and are expelled from the Party."

Ms Addison and Ms Argument have been approached for comment.