THE BBC’s flagship Tory leadership debate has come under fire after an allegedly anti-Semitic imam and a former Labour party staffer were allowed to question the five men vying to replace Theresa May.

The BBC defended its vetting process, saying Abdullah Patel had hidden tweets from them and that he would not have been selected for the programme if they had been aware of his previous comments

In tweets, he had claimed that “every political figure on the Zionist’s payroll is scaring the world about Corbyn”.

He also shared an image endorsing the relocation of Israel to the US as a way of achieving peace.

In another post, he reportedly told women to not be alone with men.

He said: “Generally men are the predators, but women need to realise this and be smarter. It takes two to tango, and if you put yourself in that position, don’t expect every man to pass up the opportunity to take advantage of you. Don’t be alone with a man!”

Yesterday, he was suspended by the Al-Ashraf Primary School, where he works as a deputy head.

Yakub Patel, chairman of Al-Madani Educational Trust, said: “Following some of the comments attributed to Mr Patel in the media this morning, the trust has decided to suspend him from all school duties with immediate effect until a full investigation is carried out.

“The school and trust do not share the views attributed to him.”

Earlier, BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Nicky Campbell, who had Patel on his breakfast show, apologised and said the imam had made “extremely disturbing” remarks on Twitter and that he was “sorry” the broadcaster had not checked beforehand.

On Tuesday night’s show, Patel had asked the men about the impact of politicians’ words on Islamophobia, implicitly referencing Boris Johnson’s comments about women who wear the burqa resembling “letterboxes”.

Responding to the controversy, Home Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted that the imam, should “practice what he preaches”.

“Words do indeed have consequences.”

Meanwhile, it emerged that Aman Thakar – who questioned the Tory leadership candidates on a snap General Election – was a Labour Party candidate last year. He also worked briefly in the party’s HQ.

In a statement, the BBC said: “We carried out background research into the online and social media profiles of all our questioners for last night’s debate. After the debate, one individual reactivated a public Twitter account he had previously deactivated, whose tweets were not visible during our research period. Had we been aware of the views he expressed there, he would not have been selected.”

The corporation confirmed it had known Thakar had worked for Labour.

The SNP’s Keith Brown, said BBC bosses were refusing to learn lessons about vetting members of the public: “They have been well warned in recent months over the exposure of BBC Question’s Time audience selection processes but they clearly haven’t bothered to sort it out. With the huge resources that the BBC has at its disposal you’d have thought they might have been able to find a dozen people to come on and ask questions without repercussions”.