Conservatives in Hounslow have been criticised over a prospective local elections candidate who previously sent tweets which have been described as anti-Muslim.

Philippa Auton from the town was selected by Brentford & Isleworth Conservative Party earlier this year to run for the Isleworth ward on Hounslow Council .

She stood down before being officially nominated as a candidate in the election, when all 60 seats on the Labour-run council will be contested.

In response to a tweet posted by The Guardian on December 20 2016, asking "what can be done to prevent Berlin-style attacks in modern cities", Ms Auton replied: "Revoke Muslim immigration, repatriate and secure European borders, keep Europe safe."

On November 17 she retweeted a tweet from English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson made after he was stripped of his blue tick of approval on the social media site for promoting hate speech.

He had tweeted: "We have laws against people promoting hate speech. I've never broke them. I've been stripped of my blue tick in Twitter for my legitimate criticism of Islam. Free speech is under attack."

Ed Mayne, chair of Brentford & Isleworth Labour Party, said: "The Tory election campaign is clearly a shambles in Isleworth. Just days before nominations opened they had to replace one of their selected candidates."

Philippa Auton tweet screenshot

Mr Mayne said he regarded Ms Auton as having posted "Islamophobic tweets" and also "retweeting far-right extremists like Milo Yiannopoulos and Tommy Robinson".

"She goes as far as calling to 'revoke Muslim immigration' and 'repatriate' Muslims, despite the fact she was selected to stand for the Conservative Party in Isleworth alongside two Muslim candidates," he added.

"Perhaps her fellow candidates, Nada and May Jarche, didn’t know [about the tweets]... if that’s the case then it’s a scandal the Tories did not properly vet their candidates. If they did know, then it's a scandal that they would choose someone like Ms Auton to represent the multicultural ward of Isleworth."

Julian Tanner, Conservative chairman in Brentford & Isleworth, said Ms Auton had taken the decision to resign of her own accord because she realised she didn't want to be limited to "working within the confines" of a political party.

He said: "She has strong views on some issues and felt she and the Conservative Party weren't aligned on some issues."

When asked if she should be expelled from the party he said at the time that he "wasn't aware of anything that would require that kind of response".

Philippa Auton tweet screenshot

Mr Tanner added he would look into the matter and see if any action was required after which he said he would follow the necessary protocols.

Ms Auton - who has been a Conservative Party member since 2015 and used to organise events on key democratic issues in Frome in Somerset - told Get West London she stood by here tweets and retweets, saying: "I support free speech and the Conservative Party is a broad church."

Referring to the wording of her Twitter reply to the question posed by The Guardian, she added: "You are limited to the number of characters you use in a tweet. I am against illegal immigration and I support having closed borders."

Ms Auton explained that her reason for stepping down before being officially nominated was to do with a difference of opinion with other Conservative election candidates over a key issue of the reopening of Church Street in Isleworth to traffic.