The Conservative Party has confirmed a candidate who won a crucial seat in the local elections will not yet sit as a Tory councillor as an investigation is launched into old Facebook posts.

The issue of Shakeel Hussain’s election victory was raised in the House of Commons yesterday by Labour MP Alex Cunningham. Mr Hussain was one of two Conservative candidates who won in Stockton Council's Ropner ward last Friday, a gain from Labour hailed as a “great, great win” by Conservative group leader Councillor Tony Riordan.

With his seat, the Conservatives seemed to overtake Labour as the largest group on Stockton Council by 23 seats to 22, with no party in overall control. There is still uncertainty over the leadership of the hung council.

However before the election, the Conservative Party responded to the emergence of Facebook posts liked, shared or posted on an account under Cllr Hussain’s name several years ago, one referring to “Zionist murderers”.

The party told the Local Democracy Service before the election: “We do not support the views shared in these social media posts. It is too late to remove Mr Hussain from the ballot paper under electoral law, but he would not be allowed to join the Conservative group on the council, if elected, until any investigations had been completed.”

It was understood he had applied to be a Labour candidate, having run for the party in Hartburn in 2019 and 2021, but this was halted and a complaints procedure started after concerns were raised over conduct on Facebook. He subsequently left the party and joined the Conservatives, winning in last week’s election with 934 votes.

In Parliament, Alex Cunningham, Labour MP for Stockton North, said: “On Friday morning Stockton Conservatives cheered the election of their candidate Shakeel Hussain, despite his published statement that Israelis were ‘Zionist murderers’. The same Mr Hussain joined the Conservatives a few weeks ago, after being rejected by the Labour Party for his anti-Semitic views.

“Why is Mr Hussain still a Tory Party member, and what is the government advice to Tory leader Tony Riordan who, when offered sight of the evidence well before the election, declined to look because he didn’t have his spectacles with him?”

Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons, replied: “The Honourable Gentleman will know that this is not a matter for the Leader of the House, but it would be a matter for the party chairman and I would suggest that he raises any concerns he has about the conduct of any individual with the party chairman.

“He will know that we have a proper process to look at all of these matters. I don’t think he has done that, he may wish to do that and that is the best advice I can offer him as Leader of the Commons.”

A Conservative Party spokesperson said following this and in response to queries from the Local Democracy Reporting Service this week: “In line with our established processes, this case is being investigated. Cllr Shakeel Hussain will not take the Conservative whip, and therefore not sit as a Conservative councillor.”

It has been clarified this means he would not sit as a Conservative councillor until the investigation is completed, and the party would go from there depending on the outcome.

Cllr Hussain said: “I will await for the investigation to be completed by the Conservative Party and will assist them fully to come to a conclusion. Once the investigation has concluded I will consider making a public statement.”

Cllr Riordan said previously: “When these issues are raised it’s only right for the party to review if anything is untoward and it’s up to the party to investigate. And I’m sure that if there was an investigation, that investigation would be done in confidence and not in the public press.”

He said he was “made aware by a Labour activist of his views of the posts” and questioned why Labour did not raise these matters with their then candidate in 2019 and 2021, and what they did when the posts were raised last year. He added: “It appears that on discovering that a candidate had defected to join the Conservative Party, these matters were aired on social media.”

Cllr Riordan has also been contacted for a response.