An East Lancashire local authority is being urged to write to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to call on them to crackdown on Islamophobic and anti-Semitic comments by their party members.

Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Cllr Phil Riley and his deputy Cllr Quesir Mahmood have tabled a motion on the issue for debate when the borough's full Council Forum meet on Thursday, March 14.

It follows the controversy over former Conservative deputy chair Lee Anderson's comments about London Mayor Sadiq Khan being controlled by 'Islamists', and Labour disowning its candidate in the Rochdale by-election - Lancashire County Councillor for Nelson East Azhar Ali -over allegedly anti-Semitic comments at a meeting in Accrington.

Hyndburn prospective parliamentary candidate Graham Jones has also been suspended by Labour over comments he made at the meeting.

It also follows the authority's chief executive Denise Park representing the UK at a conference in The Netherlands to outline the borough's work on community cohesion and levelling up.

The motion says: "Blackburn with Darwen Council is proud to be viewed as one of the best examples of community cohesion in the country, and welcomes the recent opportunity for officers of the council to be able to showcase examples of best practice on an international stage.

"Sadly, however, this accolade occurs at a time when examples of race hate are growing in society, and are becoming increasingly common in public discourse, and this is a cause for serious concern among the communities of the borough.

"Tell Mama, the public service that records and monitors anti-Muslim incidents, has recorded a 335 per cent increase in anti-Muslim hate cases in the last four months compared to the similar period in 2022/2023, and the recent verbal attacks on the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, by senior members of the Conservative Party set an alarming precedent in the run-up to what is likely to be an intense set of elections in 2024.

"At the same time, the number of recorded anti-Semitic incidents is growing, often accompanied by physical violence, and this is leaving some members of the Jewish community afraid to walk out on the streets of their towns and cities.

"Islamophobic and anti-Semitic incidents and rhetoric of this kind have no place in the political arena or anywhere in public life in the UK and we call on the chief executive to write to the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition, asking them to ensure that any examples of such rhetoric within their parties are treated with the utmost seriousness and that politicians who indulge in this kind of rhetoric are not tolerated within the mainstream political parties."