THE DAILY Echo understands that the BCP Labour councillor at the centre of an alleged anti-semitism row has been suspended from the party while it carries out an investigation.

Councillor Lisa Lewis retweeted an article from a website which said Countdown star Rachel Riley was “working for the Israeli state propaganda machine”.

The newly-elected West Southbourne representative, who earlier this year told the Echo she was “15 per cent Jewish”, was criticised by Ms Riley on Twitter for posting the “racist” link.

In a statement the Labour Party said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously, which are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken. We cannot comment on individual cases.”

The Daily Echo attempted to contact Ms Lewis but she did not respond to our calls. We were also unable to contact her BCP Labour colleagues George Farquhar and Lewis Allison.

The chairman of BCP Council’s standards committee, Colin Bungey, said he was unable to comment and BCP Council itself said it was checking to see if any complaints had been made to the standards committee although its process is confidential.

The Dorset Eye article at the centre of the furore was published in support of left-wing news outlet The Canary following Ms Riley, who has been a vocal critic of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, welcoming the news that, what she called, the “hyper-partisan fake news website”, was having to downsize.

In response, a Dorset Eye article said she was a “fascist” and an “Israeli state terrorist sympathiser”.

“For a while now, Rachel Riley has been working – not so clandestinely – for (or with) the Israeli state propaganda machine,” it said.

“The attempt has been to lie and deceive people into believing that Jeremy Corbyn, and those media who seek to stand up to the hate and lies of right-wing Zionists and terror supporters against Palestinian women, men and children are anti-Semitic.

“Whether she is paid for her hate and propaganda is not for me to say. But she is obviously a fascist and an Israeli terrorist sympathiser."

Labour group secretary, Patrick Canavan, said: “There is no place for anti-Semitism in our movement. Hatred towards Jewish people is rising in many parts of the world and we will continue to do our utmost to drive this out and to eliminate it from our movement.

“Unfortunately there are those who seek to exaggerate and distort the scale of the problem within the Labour Party. Some do this to attack us and undermine our efforts to get rid of this Tory government.

“Irrespective of what various groups and individuals may say on social media, the Labour Party is resolute in its determination to confront bigotry and discrimination wherever it arises.”

Speaking shortly after her election in May, Cllr Lewis said she was 15 per cent Jewish and that none of her Jewish friends in the Labour Party had “ever encountered any anti-Semitism”.

“I don’t know anybody in the Labour Party who has encountered any anti-Semitism but I think it could be possible that there are various pockets of it,” she said.

The Labour Party itself is currently under investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission after receiving a number of complaints about allegations of antisemitism in the organisation.