A Conservative councillor caused an uproar at the Radlett election hustings when he shouted at the Labour candidate, Holly Kal-Weiss, that she wasn’t British.

The stunned audience look on in horror as Hertsmere Shenley councillor, Anthony Spencer, roared ‘She’s not British, she’s American.”

Responded Holly: “I have a British passport and I’ve lived here 30 years. How long do you have to live in the UK to be considered British?”

Councillor Spencer then tried to make an issue of an old photo of Holly Kal-Weiss at a woman’s march in Washington where the person next to her had a Palestinian flag. Challenged by Holly to show the photo, the audience were heard to shout “sit down” to him.

The infuriated chair, eminent QC, Jeffrey Gruder, told Councillor Spencer, “You are, with due respect, disgracing yourself. Sit down. You are a councillor.” Cheers and claps came from the audience.

The scene was captured on video by a member of the audience.

After the meeting, Holly Kal-Weiss said “I was absolutely shocked. It was blatant racism. I have worked long and hard in the local community as a social worker, teacher and campaigner.”

Hertsmere Labour spokesperson, Nik Oakley, said: “Conservative Party candidate, Oliver Dowden, signed up to a ‘clean campaign’ pledge and challenged the other candidates to do the same. We were more than happy to do that, but it would appear that some of his campaign team did not agree. It was an unedifying spectacle bringing the Conservative Party into disrepute and Oliver Dowden has rightly distanced himself from it.”