A SENIOR Conservative councillor is under investigation by the party head office after a claim he posted anti-Semitic comments on social media.

Hyndburn Council health and communities boss Cllr Sajid Mahmood is standing for re-election in his Church ward in Thursday's local elections.

The probe by Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) which follows an article in the Jewish Chronicle is the second investigation into his behaviour in recent weeks.

Earlier this month Cllr Mahmood apologised after a town hall employee's complaint about his 'aggressive' behaviour resulted in a Hyndburn Council standards investigation.

The CCHC inquiry follows an investigation by the Jewish Chronicle which says it discovered extremist and anti-Semitic posts from three Conservative local election candidates standing in the North-West - Cllr Mahmood, Bolton's Mazhar Iqbal and Rochdale's Shajan Ali.

Conservative Party sources told the Lancashire Telegraph that complaints had been received about all three and investigations were under way.

The Jewish Chronicle article says: "Standing for the party in nearby Hyndburn is Sajid Mahmood, a councillor and the local cabinet member for health and communities.

"In 2015, Mahmood wrote of “Israel bastard soldiers” who made his “blood boil” and were “coward twats”.

"More recently, he “liked” a Facebook post claiming “Britain are responsible for the children of Gaza mental health problems by signing over the country to the Jews [sic]”.

"He also liked one that condemned Israel for “war crimes”, adding: “Britain can’t say anything because they are the one who made big mistake giving Palestine land to Israel in 1948 [sic]”.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "We're proud to be a party that supports opportunity for all, of all races and religions.

"Any form of discrimination or abuse is wrong and where cases have been reported the CCHQ the party had acted decisively launching an immediate investigation under our party's code of conducted.

"The Conservative Party has an established code of conduct and formal processes where complaints can be made in confidence.

"This process is rightly confidential."

The Lancashire Telegraph has approached Cllr Mahmood several times for comment but he has failed to respond.

Hyndburn Council's Conservative leader Cllr Marlene Haworth declined to comment.

Representatives of Hyndburn Labour Party also declined to comment.

Its Prospective Parliamentary Candidate and former Hyndburn MP Graham Jones is currently suspended by the party over an audio recording which appeared to show him using the words "f****** Israel". The same meeting led to Lancashire County councillors for Nelson East Azhar Ali having Labour support for his by-election bid to become Rochdale MP withdrawn for suggesting that Israel had taken the October 7 Hamas assault as a pretext to invade Gaza.