LAST year’ Mayor of Pendle has been suspended by the Conservative Party over a ‘highly offensive and racist’ post she shared on social media.

Earby councillor Rosemary Carroll posted the alleged ‘joke’ on her Facebook account which offended users.

Several contacted the Labour leader of the borough Mohammed Iqbal.

He wrote to council, corporate director and monitoring officer Philip Mousdale asking if the post breached to code of conduct for councillors.

He also wrote to leader of the Conservative group Cllr Joe Cooney asking for her suspension.

Cllr Carrol has now been suspended from the Tory Party and group and the post has been removed from her Faceboook account.

Cllr Iqbal’s letter to Cllr Cooney said: “I am writing to you as leader of the Conservative group regarding the conduct of one of your members.

“As you can see below Cllr Carroll has posted a highly offensive and racist post on Facebook and I have been contacted by members of the public who share my disgust at such a post.

“I am asking you to immediately suspend Cllr Carroll for such an offensive post, unless you agree with the contents, pending further investigation.”

Cllr Cooney said today: ““This morning I was made aware of a racist post which had been shared on Facebook by one of our Councillors, Rosemary Carroll.

“ We will not tolerate racism of any form. Rosemary Carroll has been suspended from the Conservative Group on Pendle Borough Council and the Conservative Party with immediate effect, pending a full investigation in due course”.

Mr Mousdale said: “I’ve received two formal complaints under the Councillor Code of Conduct relating to a Facebook post shared by Councillor Rosemary Carroll.

“As monitoring officer for the Council I’m looking into the complaints Cllr Carroll, whose term as Pendle’s ‘First Citizen’ ended earlier this year, was not immediately available for comment.