A petition to remove a controversial New Cross diversity officer has failed to gain enough signatures.

Students at Goldsmiths University started a petition to remove welfare and diversity officer Bahar Mustafa after a number of alleged racist incidents.

Ms Mustafa has been criticised for tweeting #killallwhitemen and labelling people 'white trash', as well as banning white men from a university event on diversifying the curriculum.

She then defended her position by stating that she could not be racist because she is an ethnic minority woman.

A Goldsmiths Student Union spokesman said: "Following action taken during the occupation of a university building last month, 165 students signed a petition calling for a vote of no confidence in welfare and diversity officer Bahar Mustafa.

"This represents 1.9 per cent of our 8,000+ members and our rules require three per cent to have signed to trigger a referendum.

"The petition has therefore failed and so a vote will not take place.

"However, we recognise some students and a large number of people outside the organisation are unhappy with the work of our elected representatives.

"We are looking at how we can address those concerns in dialogue with our members and our trustees, who oversee our work."

The university petition ran for three weeks and was promoted through the Student Union website and social media.

Only members of the Student Union were allowed to vote.

A separate petition on change.org to remove Ms Mustafa from office has received more than 21,000 signatures.