A local Labour branch has rejected a motion condemning the murder of 11 Jewish people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh because all "the focus was anti-Semitism", a party activist has alleged.

Members of Labour's Stockton North party are said to have complained that a statement condemning the killings failed to mention other forms of racism and demanded specific references to anti-Jewish hatred be removed.

The motion was drafted in the wake of the attack on a synagogue in the American city on Saturday, when a gunman entered and killed worshippers during a Shabbat service.

It comes a day after the Southend West Labour branch amended a similar motion on the Pittsburgh massacre, which saw a line calling for anti-Semitism "to be eradicated" removed following resistance from some members.

Steve Cooke, a party member who put forward the motion in Stockton-on-Tees, said on Friday that the decision to reject it had left him "aghast".