The Ukip leadership has moved to distance the party from remarks by one of its councillors claiming an "overload" of immigrants had turned Britain into a racist country.
Trevor Shonk, who represents Ukip on Kent County Council and Ramsgate Town Council, blamed Labour and the Conservatives for allowing in more immigrants than the country could cope with.
"The two main parties that have been running this country have made the country racist because of the influx that we have had," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One.
"When I've done leaflets every shopkeeper, whether they are Asian or English born, they're concerned about the influx.
"It hasn't been staggered, it's just overload. We haven't got the care homes, we haven't got the houses for our own."
However Ukip deputy chairman Suzanne Evans rejected the suggestion that Britain was racist and said that Shonk "didn't express it as well as he could".
"I think Britain is actually a very accommodating country and I don't think by any stretch of the imagination can be termed racist," she told The World at One.
10 Policies You Had Forgotten Ukip Had Made
Taxi drivers must wear uniforms(01 of10)
Open Image ModalFor those who see a black cab with an illuminated sign saying 'TAXI' on it - and aren't sure whether it's a taxi - Ukip had you covered. When Andrew Neill put this to Farage on The Daily Politics in January, saying: "You favour a compulsory dress code for taxi drivers". Farage said: "Do we?" The policy didn't actually make it into the 16-page manifesto but was mooted by a "discussion group" that fed into Ukip policies, then policy chief David Campbell Bannerman told HuffPost UK. (credit:Anthony Devlin/PA Archive)
Ban the burkha! (Well, in some places)(02 of10)
Open Image ModalIn the section about 'Restoring Britishness', the manifesto pledged to "tackle Islamic extremism" by banning the wearing of the burkha or veiled niqab in public buildings and "certain private" ones. "Ukip opposes multiculturalism and political correctness - aiming to create a single British culture embracing all religions and cultures," it said. (credit:Anthony Devlin/PA Archive)
Shield our children from Al Gore's 'propaganda' (03 of10)
Open Image ModalEurosceptics and climate change sceptics appear to go hand in hand - Ukip say they wanted to abolish the Climate Change Act and ban Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth from our schools, calling it "global warming propaganda". It also pledged to stop funding the UN panel on climate change and fund the Met Office "according to forecast accuracy". But they did have a green side... (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Get us all to drive electric cars(04 of10)
Open Image ModalThe manifesto said it would "incentivise and support" the use of electric road vehicles. (credit:John Walton/PA Archive)
A 'proper' Treason Act(05 of10)
Open Image ModalYeah, that's right - a "proper" one. Suck it, traitors. The act would be to prosecute British citizens found guilty of attacks on "the British people or armed forces". Beyond that, there isn't much detail. (credit:Alastair Grant/PA Wire)
Boot camps for young offenders(06 of10)
Open Image ModalYoung people consistently in trouble with the law were to be sent to "boot camp" to stop them "spiraling into a life crime". Ominously, that is all the manifesto has to say on the subject. It also pledged to double the number of prison places, presumably in case the camps didn't work. (credit:Jeff Moore/Jeff Moore)
Safeguard British measurements(07 of10)
Open Image ModalFarage wasn't Ukip leader at the time of the 2010 general election but we detect his fingerprints on this. His party pledged to "safeguard" imperial measurements like the pint and the mile from being "undermined" by Brussels. So, Farage won't have to order "half a litre of ale," (or worse, lager) any time soon. (credit:Steve Parsons/PA Wire)
Triple the size of the border staff(08 of10)
Open Image ModalThe Border Agency needed to be tripled in size to around 30,000 employees, in order to enforce Ukip's proposed new requirement that every non-UK citizen's entry and exit to the country be recorded. (credit:Steve Parsons/PA Wire)
Return to grants for students(09 of10)
Open Image ModalUniversity students are an unlikely target demographic for the eurosceptic party. Nonetheless, they said they would return to the old student grant system and scrap students loans which are leaving them in "heavy debt" If only those thousands of students who voted for the Lib Dems had known... (credit:Johnny Green/PA Wire)
'English-only' days at parliament(10 of10)
Open Image ModalBloody Scots, coming down here, taking up their duly elected places in the House of Commons. On "English-only" days, the MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would be required to go home and perform the devolved duties of the regional assemblies - whose existing members they would replace. (credit:Steve Parsons/PA Wire)
"I know what councillor Shonk meant. Perhaps he didn't express it as well as he could. There has of course been a massive increase in immigration which people find incredibly difficult to deal with."
The latest comments come after Ukip parliamentary candidate Kerry Smith was forced to stand down over racist and homophobic comments he made.
Meanwhile another Ukip councillor in Kent, Martyn Heale, was reported to have spoken of his "regret" at having been a member of the far right National Front in the 1970s.
Heale, who was a Conservative activist for 20 years before joining Ukip a decade ago, would not be interviewed for broadcast, but told the BBC that it was "really depressing" to be reminded of his past.
"I obviously regret what I did," he told the BBC.
Evans complained that media reporting of Ukip was unfair, pointing out that Labour had councillors who had previously been in the National Front or the BNP while crimes involving councillors from other parties often went unreported in the national media.
"The media reporting of Ukip is not fair," she said. "I think the establishment is very upset with Ukip and the fact that it is shaking the cosy status quo, the stitch-up the three old parties have had between them.
"Ukip is standing up for things that good, honest, decent people care about."