Officers at Preston Police's diversity unit are looking into the comments Fergus Bowman made on social networking site Facebook which could lead to a hate crime conviction.

The second year politics and religious student, of Catterall, near Garstang, has quit his position of the Conservative Future Society at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and been thrown out of the political party following the comments.

Police have contacted the university and the company behind Facebook to gather further information about the incident before making a report to the Criminal Prosecution Service (CPS).

Sgt Phil Orm, of the diversity unit, said: "The police are aware of the situation and an investigation is being undertaken into it.

"A report will be submitted to the CPS following the investigation and they will judge whether a prosecution should be made."

In an interview with UCLan student newspaper, Pluto, the student said his comments were "a private joke" between friends.