UKIP member suspended after Tweet calling Islam 'evil' discovered

The Daily Mail offers further evidence of the UK Independence Party’s failure to identify members known to hold reprehensible views despite a promise to introduce stricter vetting procedures by party leader, Nigel Farage.

Farage, who claimed he had introduced ‘stricter vetting procedures’ to root out ‘Walter Mitty’ type characters who display ‘real extremism and nastiness’ in order to prevent them from damaging UKIP’s image, has been forced to suspend a member of the party featured in one its recently launched European Parliament election campaign adverts after shocking Twitter messages were discovered.

Andre Lampitt, who is seen in one of the campaign ads, has been found to have posted racist remarks on Twitter including a disturbing post in which he describes Islam as  ‘an evil organisation respecting a prophet who was a pedo’.

A Ukip spokesman has confirmed that the party has acted saying Lampitt’s “membership of the party has been suspended immediately pending a full disciplinary process.”

The swift action will do little to assuage fears that the party is the new home of far right extremists. A number of reports published last year reveal some members to have formerly been involved with the National Front. Further scrutiny of the party, after its run of success in by-elections, discovered that its London MEP, Gerard Batten, supported a ban on halal meat and endorsed a Charter calling on Muslims to sign a ‘Code of Conduct’ rejecting terrorism. Other reports have outlined the far right parties with which UKIP is aligned in the European Parliament.

In a column in yesterday’s Independent, Farage dismissed criticisms of the party’s campaign adverts as ‘racist’ saying it was ‘a classic tactic by those who have sought to shut down this debate’. It would appear to be the case that the claim is less tactical and more real given Lampitt’s postings.