Ukip election ad star suspended after racist tweets

ONE of the stars of Ukip's election advertisements has been suspended by the party after it was revealed that he had posted a series of racist comments on Twitter, including messages in which he described Muslims as "animals".

In tweets going back more than a year, Andre Lampitt, who features in Ukip party political broadcasts shown on the BBC and ITV on Tuesday night, commented that Africans should "kill themselves off", Islam is "evil", and Nigerians are "bad people". His account has now been deleted.

In the election ads, Lampitt, a Zimbabwe-born decorator and kitchen fitter who insists that he is "British", describes how hard it has been to get work due to lack of restriction on immigration from Europe.

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"Since the lads from Eastern Europe are prepared to work for a lot less than anybody else, I've found it a real struggle," he says in the ad. "It's getting hard to provide for my family."

Lampitt, who is standing as a Ukip councillor in next month's local elections in Merton, south London, used his Twitter account to rail against Islam, writing: "Muslims are animals their faith is disgusting their prophet is (a) pedophile" (sic).

Lampitt also claimed that most rapes in Europe were committed by Muslims. He wrote that "98 per cent of rapes in Oslo committed by foreigners — of that nearly 100 per cent Muslim men!". He continued: "How many rapes will there be when my daughter is nine in five years time... please ban Islam."

He also declared his belief that Labour leader Ed Miliband is not really British. "Miliband is not a real Brit. I hope he never gets to be PM! He was only born here", he said, adding: "I believe in being British. It is earned through generations of existence not through birth."

Lampitt, who speaks with a Zimbabwean accent, describes himself as "born British in Rhodesia". The 36-year-old was born in Africa shortly before Rhodesia's white minority government, led by Ian Smith, was forced to hand power to the black majority.

In the wake of the revelations, The Times reports that Lampitt has had his Ukip party membership suspended.

A Ukip spokesman said: "We are deeply shocked that Mr Lampitt has expressed such repellent views. His membership has been suspended immediately pending a full disciplinary process."

It later emerged that another Ukip poster featuring a builder begging for change alongside the slogan “British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour” featured an actor who had migrated to Britain from Ireland, The Independent reports.