A PAEDOPHILE rights campaigner with links to County Durham, who was allowed to join the Labour Party, has been suspended.

Tom O'Carroll, a former head of the Paedophile Information Exchange (Pie), which campaigned to lower the age of sexual consent, is believed to have joined the party in Barrow in September.

A Labour spokeswoman confirmed that Mr O'Carroll has now been suspended from the party.

Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock said it made his "skin crawl" that Mr O'Carroll had been able to join the party.

"A man who holds these kind of appalling views has no place in the Labour Party and it makes my skin crawl that he became a party member in Barrow," he said.

"When I confirmed Mr O'Carroll's identity at the weekend I wrote to the general secretary demanding he is expelled immediately and banned from any future events."

He added that the Labour Party acted quickly after being alerted to his membership but called for a review into membership background checks.

Mr O'Carroll was arrested at his then home in Shildon in 2006 on suspicion of distributing indecent images of children and later jailed for two-and-a-half years.