A Conservative council candidate has been suspended by the party after comparing millions of Remainers to people who voted for Hitler’s Nazis.

Carl Husted, who is standing in upcoming Nottingham City Council elections, wrote on Facebook that a petition to revoke Article 50 “now has the same number of signatures as the number of people who voted for Hitler’s Nazi party in 1930 Germany”.

He later deleted the post, which he said was a “joke” which had been “taken completely out of context”, as well as other comments about Jeremy Corbyn.

A Conservative party spokesman told The Independent: “Carl Husted has been suspended as a member of the Conservative party, pending further investigations.”

Mr Husted posted the comments, first reported by the Nottingham Post, early on Wednesday morning. He wrote: “The petition to revoke Article 50 now has the same number of signatures as the number of people who voted for Hitler’s Nazi party in 1930 Germany.

“Although Hitler didn’t have the benefit of petition signing bots and signatures from North Korea, Syria, Russia etc. So not quite as popular as 1930s nazism but edging closer. #godwinslaw.”

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His post referred to a petition on the UK government website which calls for Brexit to be cancelled. It has been signed by more than six million people.

The Labour MP for Nottingham South, Lilian Greenwood, condemned Mr Husted's remarks and said he “isn’t fit to represent anyone, least of all in our city that welcomes and values its EU citizens and close links to Europe”.

Mr Husted, who is seeking election in the Wollaton West ward on 2 May, said the post was a “Godwin’s law joke” and “nothing to do with politics”.

Godwin's law is an internet adage that states every online conversation will eventually lead to someone mentioning Hitler or the Nazis.

“If it’s gone over somebody’s head, and they haven’t understood, I’d be happy to explain to that person and to send them a link explaining Godwin’s law,” Mr Husted told the Post. “To choose to misunderstand a Godwin’s law joke is really beyond the pale, and it smacks a bit of politicking.”

He added he believed the posts – published on his public Facebook page – had been posted privately.

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In another post, he suggested Jeremy Corbyn was “repositioning Labour as the party of honest to goodness, hard-working jihadis”.

He also mocked people for “getting all pissy” about footage of British soldiers shooting at a picture of the Labour leader, who he described as an “an existential threat to them”.

It is not the first time Mr Husted, a former Conservative councillor in Wolverhampton, has got into hot water over his use of Facebook.