A prominent Britain First supporter has advocated gunning down Angela Merkel because of Germany’s policy of allowing Muslim refugees to settle in Europe.

Marian Lukasik, a far-right activist, said the German chancellor should be shot “to pieces” after allowing Syrian and Iraqi people to enter Germany.

Footage of his comments has been uploaded to YouTube as part of an interview which has been viewed thousands of times.

It comes days after a man, reportedly with rightwing views, was charged with planning to assassinate the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and one year on from the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox, who was killed by a far-right activist who shouted “Britain First” before shooting and stabbing her.

Lukasik, 61, a Polish national who lives in Enfield, north London, made his comments while attending a Britain First rally in Birmingham last month. He was interviewed for more than 20 minutes by a Polish blogger, Weronika Kania, and asked for his opinion on Merkel’s immigration policy.

Lukasik replied in Polish: “Let comrade Mauser speak” – an apparent reference to a German semi-automatic pistol – before imitating the sound and miming the action of a firing gun for several seconds. He then said: “Shoot her into pieces. This is the only solution. If this whore remains in charge it will just get worse. There will be terrorist attacks and so on.”

According to the Criminal Law Act 1977, a person who makes a threat to kill, intending that others would fear it would be carried out, can face a sentence of up to 10 years.

After being urged to calm down by another man at the rally, Lukasik said: “I will go to prison for what I have said. I will not be the first or the last. If I go to prison for telling the truth, it’s fine by me.”

Lukasik, a former champion wrestler, stood as an independent councillor in Enfield in 2014. During the campaign Lukasik told the Barnet and Whetstone Press that he wanted to help foreigners: “We, foreigners, English people, must find some solution to live together peacefully.”

This benevolent sentiment is absent from Lukasic’s current presence on social media where he has posted slogans warning about the number of Muslims in Europe, and called for trade unions to be banned.

Lukasik’s views on Islam have been uploaded to YouTube by Britain First’s deputy leader, Jayda Fransen, and he has been photographed alongside her on several occasions.

In one piece of footage, he says: “I am here to warn you about Islamisation,” before claiming that Muslim gangs have been involved in the “ritual rape” of young white girls.

Contacted on Wednesday night, Lukasik said he stood by the sentiment of what he said in the footage but would not murder Merkel or anyone else. He said he had lived in Germany and became emotional when asked about Merkel but would not actually shoot her.

“I do not like what she has done because of the many Muslims who have come to Germany and the terrorist attacks in Europe. I would not shoot her or anyone,” he said.

He said he had helped Britain First to recruit supporters among the Polish community and took 40 supporters to recent rallies by the group.

“I worry about the Muslims coming to Europe. We have seen too many deaths from terrorism in Germany, in London, in Manchester,” he said.

Three far-right activists from Poland were recently stopped from attending the Britain First rally in Birmingham after being detained by the UK authorities at airports.

They included Jacek Międlar, 28, an antisemitic priest, and his fellow activist Piotr Rybak, who was indicted for inciting hatred last year after burning an effigy of an orthodox Jew during a protest against Muslim immigration.

Rafał Pankowski from the Never Again Association, which monitors far-right activity in Europe, said Lukasik was “the tip of the iceberg”, because of growing radicalisation in the UK Polish community by far-right groups. “It is time for British authorities and organisations to wake up to this issue,” he said.