Supporters of a pro-Gaza independent MP are terrorising people in a West Yorkshire town, the local Tory leader has claimed.

Qadeer Ghafoor, the chairman of the Dewsbury Tories in West Yorkshire, has claimed he and his family have been personally threatened after falling out with some of the supporters over a business dispute.

After reporting the claims to police, Mr Ghafoor, 34, was advised by officers to move out of his home for a night and install a panic alarm so he could call for immediate help if he was attacked.

Other colleagues and associates have also reported their cars being torched, receiving death threats, or suffering arson attacks on their property.

The violence follows a general election campaign last year in which Heather Iqbal, the losing Labour candidate, complained of “intimidation, abuse and harassment” in the run-up to polling day on July 4.

Ms Iqbal said supporters of Iqbal Mohamed, the successful independent candidate, chased her down the street and shouted that she was a “child murderer” and a “genocide agent”, while a loudspeaker van blared out the message that Labour was a Zionist party. Those to have expressed support for the MP online include a member of an organised crime group.