Ukip is not a racist party, says a senior Conservative minister. Community secretary Eric Pickles says Nigel Farage’s party is “über-nationalist” and “xenophobic”, but adds that he does not believe “in my heart” that it is racist.
Pickles tells the Daily Telegraph that Farage has played on people’s fear of immigration in a “shameful” way and agrees that Ukip contains members who have made “racist calculations”.
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