A Labour Party group has rejected a motion condemning the Pittsburgh synagogue attack.

Steve Cooke, secretary of Norton West branch in the Stockton North constituency, proposed the motion expressing solidarity with the Jewish community and pledging that antisemitism should be “confronted and eradicated”, with Labour leading the way.

Only one other member backed the motion and Mr Cooke said the leader of Stockton-on-Tees Council, Robert Cook, was among those who opposed it.

Writing on Facebook, Mr Cooke said he was “aghast” at the decision, having assumed the motion “would be approved without controversy… However, it was soon apparent that there would be resistance to the whole idea.”

According to Mr Cooke, opponents of the motion had argued that there was too much focus on “antisemitism this, antisemitism that” suggesting that the text should not refer to antisemitism specifically, but racism in general.

“I pointed out that the motion clearly expressed concern about racist hate crime more generally.”

He claimed he had been accused “of trying to bring the party into disrepute by associating us with antisemitism” for proposing a motion that “would have strongly dissociated us from any form of hatred towards Jewish people and which would have shown how clear we were about confronting the evil of antisemitism”.

Mr Cooke also claimed Stockton North Labour Party had previously voted down his attempts to set up antisemitism awareness training for local members.