Amodio Amato has been dropped by the Reform UK party as their parliamentary candidate for Stevenage.

A Mail on Sunday investigation found a series of offensive remarks on a social media account reportedly belonging to Mr Amato.

They included a declaration that London was an "Islamic State", and that there would be "a Muslim army run by Sadiq Khan".

Other posts said that Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf is "most certainly a Hamas terrorist supporter", and spread the conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama is "a transvestite".

The investigation also found offensive comments by two other Reform parliamentary candidates, with at least 12 of the party's candidates now dropped or suspended.

Mr Amato's removal from the party came too late to stop his name being on the ballot paper for Woodfield ward at the upcoming Stevenage Borough Council elections on May 2.

A Reform spokesperson told the Mail on Sunday on April 6: "Amodio Amato and Pete Addis have been removed from their candidature with immediate effect, for comments that clearly breach any basic idea of decency."

READ MORE

On the same evening, Mr Amato posted on his Facebook page that he "no longer work[s] for ReformUK, we have parted our ways.

"I wish them luck. At some point a new candidate will be available for Stevenage.

"It is a misunderstanding that cannot be resolved.

"I still believe in their core principles, I have spoken loudly about them on this page."

Richard Tice, Reform's leader, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that his party made "the fastest decisions when someone does or says or writes something completely inappropriate”.

He continued: “One of the reasons we put our candidates list out so early ahead of many of the other parties is so we’re open to the scrutiny of various organisations and the media and in a sense that’s a good thing. They’re helping us with the vetting process.”

Based on current polling, Electoral Calculus predict that at the next general election Reform UK will gain 12.3 per cent of the vote in Stevenage, behind only Labour and the Conservatives.

The party's website says that a new parliamentary candidate for Stevenage will be selected in the "near future".