BBC News channel editor Jasmine Lawrence was accused of showing 'bias' and 'prejudice' just hours before today's election by writing the critical tweet

A BBC News channel boss claimed yesterday that Ukip stands up for white, middle class men with ‘sexist’ and ‘racist’ views.

Jasmine Lawrence was accused of showing bias and prejudice just hours before today’s election by posting the message on Twitter.

Mrs Lawrence had been due to help lead BBC News coverage of today’s local and European elections, but the corporation last night said she had been removed from that role as it launched an internal investigation. She has deactivated her Twitter account.

The 43-year-old wrote the tweet after Ukip encouraged its supporters to share reasons why they were voting for the party, with the hashtag #WhyImVotingUkip.

Mrs Lawrence, who is an editor on the rolling news channel and was duty editor for the 2010 general election, posted: ‘#WhyImVotingUkip – to stand up for white, middle class, middle aged men w sexist/racist views, totally under represented in politics today.’

Ukip leader Nigel Farage told the Mail: ‘For this senior figure in the BBC to show such prejudice when she works for the public service broadcaster is astonishing. If the BBC are serious about challenging bias she should be fired immediately.’

A BBC spokesman said: 'Jasmine Lawrence was tweeting from a personal account. She has been reminded of her responsibilities to uphold BBC guidelines. She has deactivated her Twitter account and will now be playing now part in the BBC's election coverage in coming days.'

Mrs Lawrence, who lives with her husband in a £475,000 house in Henley-upon-Thames, joined the BBC in 2001 and has held a number of roles within the corporation including running its Westminster desk.

In 2011 she joined a BBC team responsible for posting breaking news on Twitter before she was promoted to become an assistant editor on the BBC News channel in 2012.

On her LinkedIn profile, Mrs Lawrence, who has a private pilot’s licence, boasted: ‘I've been a journalist for 25 years with proven experience in both the commercial sector and within the BBC.

‘I am well versed in making decisions - frequently at speed. I have impeccable editorial judgment.’

She tweeted: posted: '#WhyImVotingUkip - to stand up for white, middle class, middle aged men w sexist/racist views, totally under represented in politics today'

'We voted Miliband. He edged it on comedy value'

Mrs Lawrence added: ‘The BBC is facing tough challenges ahead. We have to offer audiences something they don't get elsewhere, whether it’s original stories, creative treatments, more thorough analysis, or ideally all of the above.

‘Put bluntly, we can't justify the licence fee if we simply give audiences the same stories and same approach they find elsewhere. We need to be at our best when the audiences (new or otherwise) turn to us.’

The hashtag #whyimvotingukip started trending yesterday morning after the party posted on Twitter: ‘Why are you voting UKIP this year? Tell us, tell Twitter and let’s get it trending! #WhyImVotingUkip.’

Nigel Farage wrote on Twitter: ‘Delighted to see so many people announcing their intention to vote for UKIP tomorrow #WhyImVotingUKIP.’

But it was quickly ambushed by opponents of the party who posted sarcastic messages about the party and Mr Farage with the hashtag.

Joke responses including: ‘#WhyImVotingUkip: because, like the leader @Nigel_Farage, I get a bit racist when I’m tired too.’

Another user posted: ‘#WhyImVotingUkip because voting far right and blaming minorities after an economic downturn worked so well before, let’s try that again.’

Mrs Lawrence last night deleted her Twitter account.

Farage: 'I’ve got so many women pregnant over the years'

Ukip leader Nigel Farage once bragged about the number of women he had got pregnant and attacked the ‘lunacy’ of maternity leave in an interview that emerged yesterday.

Asked if women should play football, Mr Farage told a Belgian magazine: ‘Here’s the bigger question. Do we think, chaps, when we’re there in the front line, when the balloon goes up, with fixed bayonets, when the whistle’s about to blow to go over the top, do we actually want to be there with women beside us?

'Do we? What an extraordinarily bizarre idea! I certainly don’t think so.'

He added: ‘But maybe it’s because I’ve got so many women pregnant over the years that I have a different view.

‘I find it very difficult to think that we could stand up and run over the top together, into the machine guns or whatever. Men and women are different - thank God!’

Mr Farage, who has had four children with two wives, made the remarks in an interview with magazine Up Front in 2005.

He added that it was ‘lunacy’ that ‘if you have children you get three months paid leave off work, or six months paid leave off work’.

The emergence of the interview came as Farage said that hostility towards him now means that his own aunt now denies that they are related.