A Conservative election candidate has quit the race amid a storm over comments he made on food banks, feminism and his political rival.
Antony Calvert, who was standing in the Labour-held seat of Wakefield, has faced criticism for a series of historic Facebook posts.
According to the Sunday Times, Calvert said “if ever there was a reason to be involved in public office” it was to expose “ludicrous” claims of food poverty in the UK.
He also said Labour’s Harriet Harman had to stop “banging on about wholly and utterly irrelevant feminist issues”.
In another post, Calvert is said to have written that if former Libyan dictator Gaddaffi wanted to walk the streets unrecognised “he should surely have fled to Bradford”.
He is also accused of criticising the appearance of Mary Creagh, who has been Wakefield’s MP since 2005.
“Obviously the BBC make up dept don’t work on Sunday,” he wrote.
In a statement, Calvert said: “Over the last 24 hours a number of very historic posts from my personal Facebook timeline have featured in the news media.
“While I would prefer to stand and fight the assertions, these comments represent neither my views nor those of the Conservative Party.”
Past social media posts have dogged parliamentary candidates from both major parties since the December 12 general election was called.
Last week, a Conservative candidate who made “ill-judged comments” during a radio discussion about a high-profile rape case announced he was standing down.
Former BBC Radio Norfolk presenter Nick Conrad was selected to stand for Broadland despite the controversy over his comments in 2014 saying women should “keep your knickers on”.