Labour’s ruling body has decided not to back a woman to be a parliamentary candidate over tweets about Hitler and the "Zionist sympathies" of a Jewish MP.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) decided not to endorse Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt to stand for Labour in South Thanet on the basis that she had brought the party into disrepute.

Ms Gordon-Nesbitt was selected in April, having joining Labour when Jeremy Corbyn became leader.

But, writing on Facebook on Tuesday, she said the NEC had decided not to back her over tweets posted from a think tank she set up which defended Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker over allegations of antisemitism.

One tweet posted from The Centre for Cultural Change Twitter account asked: "Has anyone looked into Hitler's policy on Zionism? Might not be mutually exclusive with his later actions #Scapegoating #Corbyn."

Another tweet called into question the “Zionist sympathies” of John Bercow, the speaker of the House of Commons, who is Jewish.

According to Guido Fawkes blog, Ms Gordon-Nesbitt registered The Centre for Cultural Change website and no other staff were listed at the organisation.

The Centre for Cultural Change account suggested that allegations of antisemitism against Ms Walker were “politically” motivated by “those who seek to silence anti-Zionist voices”.

Ms Gordon-Nesbitt - a socialist historian who wrote a book praising Fidel Castro - also called the suspension of Ken Livingstone the result of attempts to "smear" Mr Corbyn.

In her Facebook post, she said she “occasionally contributed” to the Centre for Cultural Change Twitter account “well before I decided to stand as a parliamentary candidate.”

She added: “The Centre for Cultural Change tweets were in no way intended to imply that antisemitism doesn’t exist in the Labour Party. They were taken out of context on the right-wing Guido Fawkes hate blog to imply that I was antisemitic.”

She added she was now "considering her options".