TORY councillor Mike Payne, who shared a racist article which called Muslims “parasites,” has been suspended by the party.

The Calderdale councillor shared the article titled France Slashes Benefits to Muslim Parasites by 83 per cent on Facebook and Twitter in June 2013.

The vile article said: “The country is no longer able to hold back the crowd of Muslim invaders, many of whom do not want to integrate into the social and economic life of their new home country and are content to live off the state and breed like rabbits.”

Sharing the article on Facebook, Mr Payne said: “Even socialists have to balance the books eventually ...”

A Tory spokesman said Mr Payne, who has since designated himself as an independent, had been suspended by the party pending an investigation.

Mr Payne’s posts raise serious questions for the Conservatives, not least because the now suspended councillor visited a mosque in Halifax on Tuesday with party chairman James Cleverly.

Mr Cleverly said of the visit: “Fantastic chat about standing together against aggression and abuse wherever it comes from and wherever it is directed.”

Labour Calderdale councillor Adam Wilkinson challenged Mr Payne about the posts, accusing him of hypocrisy given a slew of recent posts criticising Labour.

Mr Payne recently claimed that anyone who votes for Labour “needs to clearly examine their moral compass”.

But Mr Payne defended having shared the article, saying: “The article refers to the impact of uncontrolled immigration in France. My family is half French and this is a specific problem.”

Calderdale Council said that its code of conduct did not apply as he was not a councillor at the time.

But only last week Mr Payne responded to a Twitter user who claimed that, “in 1950, Britain was 99.5% white,” before asking: “What the hell happened?”

Mr Payne replied: “I dunno mate but I think it might have had something to do with uncontrolled immigration policies put in place by successive labour (sic) governments perhaps?”

Labour shadow justice minister Yasmin Qureshi said: “The use of ‘parasite’ is a vile slur, leaving the Tories with questions to answer over how they handle this case.

“If Theresa May doesn’t want the public to think the Tories are the Nasty Party, she needs to take appropriate action immediately.”