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The disgraceful images were posted on the Facebook internet social network under the heading “the Emma Claire Pentreath Appreciation Society” and revealed the grinning Pentreath, a constituency office researcher, posing with Hammersmith and Fulham MP Greg Hands having had her faced painted black with a burnt cork.

The series of pictures were accompanied by a number of racist comments apparently posted by Philip Clarke, 24, who currently serves as an aide to the former Attorney General and Senior Tory peer, Lord Lyell. In one of the pictures, Clarke is photographed applying the “blacking up make up” to Pentreath’s face.

One caption read "Emma's career in politics lies in tatters after she follows Ann Winterton's lead and dresses as a 'N***** Minstrel' for the Tory Black and White Ball." Winterton earned her reputation as a racist after being twice disciplined for telling racist jokes.

Another caption read: "The piece de resistance! Teeth shining, nostrils flared and eyes glowing. Truly terrifying!"

Despite being one of the 23 members of "the Emma Claire Pentreath Appreciation Society" MP Greg Hands said: "I have no knowledge of these pictures. Emma Pentreath is not even a member of this group. She wasn't aware of the pictures and had nothing to do with the captions. I have never met Mr Clarke or Lord Lyell. I have never witnessed any sort of racist behaviour from Emma and would be very surprised to hear that she had said or done anything of the sort." He went on to say that he had discussed the incident with Ms Pentreath who wished to decline any opportunity comment.

Clarke has since been suspended from his post. He claimed that he could not recollect ever writing the material but nevertheless accepted responsibility, stating: "I apologise and will take that away. I cannot remember if I wrote it or if it was written by someone else who hacked into my Facebook account. I think it was something quite a number of people contributed to. He went on to insist that the postings had “not intended to be racist [but] it was the wrong thing to write… I behaved very stupidly and I bitterly regret it." His penchant for demeaning and racist language did not prevent Clarke from describing himself as having “strongly held Christian beliefs".

A Tory spokesperson went on to claim that “racism is completely unacceptable and had no place in the Conservative party.” The Labour party also wheeled out one of their African MP’s to denounce the Clarke’s actions. Dawn Butler MP said that the offensive material was evidence that the Tory party “had not changed”. She went on to say, “"The message needs to get through to this Tory party that this is unacceptable and that the excuse of absent-minded racism is no excuse at all."

Founded in the early 1960s, the pressure-group stated that “The Monday Club stands for traditional Tory principles”. The club stood opposed to the so-called “premature” independence of Kenya and was in favour of the minority rule of Dutch immigrants in South African and Zimbabwe. In the 1980’s, right-wing Jon Bercow was part of the racist Conservative Monday Club. He urged the voluntary repatriation of African and Asian people, the repeal of the Race Relations Act and the abolition of the recently abandoned Commission for Racial Equality. The Tory party claim that Bercow has renounced his racist beliefs and he is now the MP for Buckingham and can now be found comfortably seated amongst the Tory frontbench.

Still revered by a large section of the British public, Tory politician, Enoch Powell is often remembered for his “Rivers of Blood” speech in 1968 in which he fervently opposed immigration. He began his speech by stating that “the supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils.” He went on to claim that he spoke to an “ordinary fellow Englishman” who claimed that “in this country in fifteen or twenty years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.” His speech has also been observed for its seemingly apocalyptic and sinister language, designed to evoke fear in to the British public.

Former Tory Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, Margaret Thatcher, won great support for her uncompromising racist views. In 1979 she claimed that Britain was being "swamped" by immigrants. She was also vehemently against the African liberation from oppressive Dutch rule in South Africa and in 1987 famously declared that "[t]he ANC is a typical terrorist organisation... Anyone who thinks it is going to run the government in South Africa is living in cloud-cuckoo land".

“Bongo-Bongo land” was the odious and anti-African epithet used by the Tory politician, Alan Clark to refer to the Continent of Africa in speech he delivered on British immigration policies in which he stated that "immigrants ought to be sent back to "Bongo-Bongo Land”.

In 1992, the Tory Central Office selected the African British barrister, John Taylor as their candidate in Cheltenham and Gloucester, a decision that resulted in an intense racist backlash within the party with alleged incidents of racist attacks again Taylor. When the barrister lost the local election, Tory party workers cheered.

Notorious for his anti-immigration stance, former Tory party chairman, Norman Tebbit has never shied away from an opportunity to condemn the presence of other cultures in Britain. He called for a “cricket test” on nationality declaring “I have my own cricket test now—if you don't want to be part of the team then get off the field.” His conclusion was that those who were not prepared to support the England cricket team should not be permitted to reside in Britain.

In December 2000, William Hague, the then leader of the Tory party was criticised for his shameless exploitation of the death of the young African schoolboy, Damilola Taylor. Hague had also warned that Britain was apparently turning into a “foreign land”. His comments were supported by Conservative election leaflets distributed in Dagenham, Essex which claimed that “floods of bogus asylum seekers coming into Britain”. The leaflets also claimed that the opposition government were “importing foreign nurses with HIV” which they cynically claimed was “Labour's way of cutting the waiting list, by scaring people not to go to hospital”.

In 2001, MP John Townend made a speech in which he blamed “immigrants” for the rising crime levels in Britain’s "homogenous Anglo-Saxon society" and claimed that there was a danger of the British becoming a “mongrel race”. The same speech had initially referred to “coloured” immigrants before he changed it to “Commonwealth” immigrants.

In 2002, Ann Winterton was sacked from her front bench post for telling racist jokes said to be offensively directed at the Pakistani community.

In March 2004, Ann Winterton was permitted to continue serving as the Tory party whip after she apologised for a racist and insensitive joke about the 20 Chinese cockle-pickers who lost their lives after drowning at Morecambe Bay.

In November 2006, Councillor Ellenor Bland was suspended from the Tory party following claims that she had circulated a racist poem by email about illegal immigrants. Although Bland claimed that she had not sent the poem personally, she defended the poem, which had featured on a number of white supremacist websites as “light-hearted”.

In March 2007, Barnet Tory councillor Brian Gordon was photographed “blacked up” at a fancy dress party which he claimed was a parody of Nelson Mandela.

Also in March this year, the Tory party homeland security spokesman, Patrick Mercer was asked to resign his front bench position after his offensive comments about African officers in army. He said: "I had the good fortune to command a battalion that was racially very mixed. Towards the end, I had five company sergeant majors who were all black. …if you'd said to them: 'Have you ever been called a n*****?' they would have said: 'Yes.' But equally, a chap with red hair, for example, would also get a hard time - a far harder time than a black man, in fact. But that's the way it is in the army. If someone is slow on the assault course, you'd get people shouting: 'Come on you fat b**tard, come on you ginger b**tard, come on you black b**tard. I came across a lot of ethnic minority soldiers who were idle and useless, but who used racism as cover for their misdemeanours.”

The current Tory party candidate for the London Mayoral election, Boris Johnson, has a litter of racist and offensive insults to his name. Amongst his comments include the instance that Nelson Mandela’s South African was a “tyranny of black majority rule”. He has also referred to African children as “piccaninnies” and on another occasion as having “watermelon smiles”. He also commented that “we in the Tory Party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing”