A Liverpool Labour candidate has apologised after social media comments emerged showing her using the phrase 'typical Jew.'
Sarah Doyle is Labour's candidate for the Riverside ward in next month's Liverpool City Council elections - having ousted sitting councillor Michelle Corrigan in last year's selection process.
She is one of a number of new Labour candidates hoping to join the council.
But questions are now being asked after a number of tweets Ms Doyle sent some years ago - which appear to use the word Jew in a derogatory manner - emerged.
One tweet sent in 2013 uses the phrase 'typical Jew', while another from 2014 says "Hahahahahaha you jew.'
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Yesterday, the ECHO messaged Ms Doyle asking for an explanation for the tweets.
Shortly after this request, her entire twitter account was deleted - and remains so today.
However, we managed to reach Ms Doyle through Facebook and she has now apologised wholeheartedly for the comments.
She said: "When I was 17 and in school, before I was a Labour Party member I tweeted a naive comment.
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"With the education I have received since joining the Labour Party, I now realise that the comment was ill-judged and unacceptable.
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"I wholeheartedly apologise. Anti-Semitism is a real and serious scourge in modern society, and I recognise its presence in the Labour Party.
"It must be confronted wherever we find it. I hope to work alongside the Jewish community in Liverpool and Jewish Labour members in the fight to eradicate anti-semitism in the Labour Party and in wider society."
The tweets came to light after a concerned Riverside resident contacted Liverpool's Liberal Democrat deputy leader Andrew Makinson having discovered them.
Cllr Makinson then wrote to Liverpool group leader Mayor Joe Anderson about the issue.
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Cllr Makinson said: "This sort of casual antisemitism is designed to degrade and dehumanise Jewish people. It plays on centuries old racist stereotypes that have long been used to target and demonise this community.
"Liverpool has a proud tradition as a welcoming and tolerant city, but our city's reputation is increasingly being tarnished by Labour's internal antisemitism scandal.
"There is no place here for any form of intolerance, and it certainly shouldn't be represented in our Town Hall. That is why we have called on Mayor Anderson and the Labour Party to distance themselves from this candidate."
Mayor Anderson confirmed that he had passed the issue on to Labour's regional office as is party policy.
The Labour Party has been engulfed in an antisemitism row for some time now.
Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger cited the party's failure to deal with the problem as the chief reason behind her decision to quit the party and join new party Change UK.
Last year, another Liverpool Labour candidate - Liam Moore - stood down after being accused of making antisemitic comments on social media.
Norris Green hopeful Liam Moore tweeted that "Rothschild's Zionists run Israel and world governments" and said Labour was "infiltrated by sellouts who would sacrifice a Labour government for their 30 pieces of silver.”
Ms Doyle will be fighting for Riverside council seat against fellow candidates Graham Kenwright (Conservative), Anna Mccracken (Liberal Democrat), Sally Newey (Green), Robin Singleton (independent) and Lindsey Wood (Liberal).
