Conservative council candidate kicked out over anti-Semitic tweets

A candidate at the upcoming local elections has been kicked out of the Conservative Party for writing a series of anti-Semitic tweets.

Obaid Khan was due to stand as a councillor in the Hall Green by-election in Birmingham on 4 May.

However, it has now emerged he published a number of social media posts, in which he used the word “Jew” as an insult, in a Twitter exchange about Pakistani politics. In the debate he claimed some of the country’s politicians had been backed by ‘foreign Jew agents’.

The Birmingham Mail was made aware of the 2014 posts and sent them on to the Conservative Party.

Within hours, his Twitter profile had been locked and his campaign material removed from websites and social media accounts of Birmingham Conservatives.

A Conservative spokesman told Jewish News: “He is no longer a member of the party. Views like that have no place in the party or our society.”

Conservative Friends of Israel Parliamentary Chairman, Sir Eric Pickles MP said: “His reported views are incompatible with membership of the Conservative Party. Pleased that he is no longer a member, and that the Party moved quickly to exclude him. There are clear lessons to other political parties that a zero tolerance to Antisemitism coupled with prompt action is the most effective way of dealing with this issue”.