JEREMY CORBYN’S opponents were in meltdown last night after a second Change UK candidate was forced to resign for saying “black women scare me” and a third was found to have been repeating Islamophobic slurs.

Joseph Russo was the second Change UK candidate in 24 hours to be dropped for making racist remarks, while Nora Mulready was facing censure by the Muslim Council of Britain as the Star went to press.

The gaffe-prone breakaway party was originally formed by Labour MPs who defected over what they said was “racism” within the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn.

But Change UK’s own anti-racist credentials were dealt a fresh blow yesterday when its top Euro election candidate for Scotland was revealed to have made insulting remarks about black women.

Mr Russo stood down after one of his tweets emerged that said: “Black women scare me.

“I put this down to being chased through Amsterdam by a crazy black whore.”

In another tweet, he posted: “I wonder if there’s a c**t/anchovy correlation. One smells like the other.”

Ms Mulready meanwhile, who was slected as Change UK’s London candidate after she quit Labour for being too “anti-imperialist hard left,” spent her time in 2018 arguing that “immigration brings with it some very regressive cultural values” and suggesting Tommy Robinson had “hit [a] societal nerve.”

Astonishingly for someone intending to represent a city with a 12.4 per cent Muslim population, she also argued that fundamentalist Islam is inextricable from the Muslim faith, saying it was “a fallacy that Islamism has nothing to do with Islam” and fundamentalism could be “Koranically justified.”

Labour’s Neil Findlay, who is MSP for Lothian, told the Morning Star: “Clearly there’s a very worrying pattern emerging of TIG [Change UK] endorsing individuals with racist views.
 
“They were meant to ‘change’ politics but based on these remarks it looks like all they are doing is pushing it into the gutter.”

On Tuesday, just hours after the party’s Euro election launch, another of their candidates stood down over a racist tweet.

Professional boxer Ali Sadjady was caught saying: “When I hear 70 per cent of pick pockets caught on the London Underground are Romanian it kind of makes me want Brexit.”

Racism has dogged the party since its inception as The Independent Group in February when one of its MPs, Angela Smith, sparked uproar on day one, saying black people had a “funny tinge” in a discussion about racism.

She later claimed to have “misspoke.”

In response to the latest racism revelations, David Rosenberg from the Jewish Socialists’ Group said: “Several former Labour MPs cited Labour’s alleged anti-semitism as the reason they were leaving to form a new party.

“It’s a bit rich given that their new party has already faced such embarrassment over racism.

“On their launch day they had the ‘funny tinge’ comments.

“Now two candidates have resigned over racist comments about Romanians and black women.

“And from those who shouted loudest making allegations of anti-semitism, all we get now is silence when it comes to their own party.”

Trade unionist Liam Young also slammed the party, saying on Twitter: “The former Labour MPs who resigned calling Corbyn a racist should be damned for the disgrace that they are.

“It’s almost as if you have to be a homophobe, racist or sexist to be selected as a Change UK candidate.

“Roll on an election so we can consign them to the dustbin of history.”