The UK Independence party has a three-point lead for this month’s European election – but most people think the party contains racists, according to an opinion poll.
Nigel Farage’s party is on 29%, ahead of Labour on 26%, the Conservatives on 23% and Liberal Democrats on 10%. But 27% of those surveyed thought Ukip was a party with “racist views” and “many racist members”, while 35% thought that, while the party was not racist, it did “seem to attract some candidates or supporters with racist, extreme or odd views”. Some 26% said Ukip was not racist and their “more controversial candidates are just saying the things ordinary people actually think”.
The poll came as Ukip suspended another would-be councillor for expressing extreme views on Twitter. Harry Perry posted comments on Twitter describing the prime minister, David Cameron, as a “gay-loving nutcase”, Muslims as “devil’s kids” and homosexuality as “an abomination before God”.
Farage accepted there were “some idiots” in the party as he condemned Perry’s comments as “entirely inconsistent” with remaining in Ukip.