Cllr Heather Venter, who was mayor of Driffield in 2013 and 2014, supported controversial posts on Twitter – but denies harbouring racist views.
One Tweet she ‘liked’ said: “Shouldn’t employ Muslims. Nothing but trouble.”
Another that was tweeted on April 30, read: “Sadly, looks like Romania’s Gypsy begger/pickpockets will b [sic] soon replaced by African Muslims.”
She also Tweeted a link to an article by a neo-Nazi website that read: “White South Africans march in London against white genocide.”
It comes after a website accused the councillor of racism for her Twitter activity.
But she has denied the allegation and said: “I can’t understand it because I’m not racist.
“I am shocked about it. I’ve had a bad heart attack in November and I’m trying really hard not to get stressed out about things, you know.
“I know all about racism and it angers me. People are called racist because they think too many migrants are coming in.
“I’m not a Nazi and I find that laughable.
“I respect them [Muslims] and I think they are badly done by and we’ve caused a lot of the trouble that’s going on.”
Cllr Venter said she can’t remember ever liking any anti-Islamic content and said it was “hurtful” that anyone would accuse her of racism.
The former mayor moved back to the UK in 1998, having lived in South Africa for a number of years with her South African husband.
During her time there, she said she took pity on out-of-work African men, by providing them with food.
She added: “When you see a man and all they’ve got is their pride - they’ve got nothing, absolutely nothing - and for a man to come and stand at your gate and beg for food, you feel for them.”
She said the men “would stand every day waiting to be picked up for work and if they didn’t work, they didn’t eat.
“I used to give him chicken and stuff like that.”
And when asked about her ‘liking’ a Tweet that attributed knife crime in London to black people, she said: “That’s a sad undeniable fact. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like blacks. I have a lot of black friends.”
But George McManus of the Beverley and Holderness Labour Party said the Tweets ‘liked’ by Cllr Venter were
“designed to cause offence”.
He added: “There’s no room for remarks like these in a civilised society. I am particularly concerned that this person occupies a position of authority as a councillor and that this impacts badly on the reputation of the good people of Driffield. They are in my opinion designed to cause offence and to cause racial and religious hatred.
“I intend to ask Humberside Police to consider whether or not they constitute an offence under section 127(1) of the 2003 Communications Act.”