A Conservative council candidate has been suspended by the party after she referred to Labour leader Ed Miliband as “the Jew”.

Gulzabeen Afsar is due to stand for the Tories in Derby’s local authority election next week.

In a Facebook status praising David Cameron’s leadership she told a friend she would never “drop that low and support the Al Yahud! Lol”.

“Al Yahud” is an Arabic term for Jew.

The Conservative Party said Ms Afsar’s comments were “offensive and wrong”. She apologised and removed them from the social networking site. Her party membership was suspended on Monday morning.

There was a furious response to the remarks from Jewish community organisations.

The Jewish Leadership Council said the Tory response had been “insufficient” and called for disciplinary proceedings to be launched against Ms Afsar.

In a statement it later said it welcomed her suspension. "It is important that this election is contested fairly and with decency. Such prejudiced remarks have no place in British politics."