Warning: Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman (pictured) said women should 'beware' of Ukip

Labour's leading feminist has launched a provocative attack on Ukip as a party led by 'Neanderthal sexists'.

Deputy leader Harriet Harman said women should 'beware' of Ukip, which tolerated 'appalling' anti-female remarks and offered a policy platform that was 'bad for women'.

Some 90 per cent of candidates selected so far by the Eurosceptic party for the General Election are male, as are 81 per cent of its 360 councillors and 71 per cent of MEPs, according to a new Labour analysis.

Miss Harman criticised those women Ukip does have in senior roles – such as communities spokeswoman Suzanne Evans – for representing a party that she said wanted to take their sex 'backwards'.

Miss Evans, Ukip's deputy chairman, accused Miss Harman of a 'vicious and completely uncalled for outburst' and branded her 'Harpie Harman'.

Labour's attack represents its latest attempt to counter the threat from Ukip in many of its northern seats by going after its weakest flank.

Mr Farage admitted late last year that his party has a women problem in terms of its appeal to voters, saying that Ukip could at times come across as a bit 'blokeish'.

But he compounded the problem by making what was condemned by critics as another sexist comment, asking: 'What do you want me to do? Go sell flowers?'

Evidence from polls ahead of the Heywood and Middleton by-election early in October suggested Ukip was ahead of Labour by 41 per cent to 38 per cent among male voters, but trailing with just 21 per cent support from women. Labour went on to take the seat.

Miss Harman said: 'Women should beware of Ukip. It's a backwards party run by dinosaurs who clearly expect men to be running the show and women to be obeying them.

'It's clear from their policies and what they say, and what they do that Ukip is bad for women.

'It's not just the Neanderthal sexist comments, and their overwhelmingly male team of candidates -- their policies show no recognition that half the people in this country are women and that women expect, and are entitled, to be treated on equal terms to men. It's a party frozen in time.'

Labour cited remarks by Stuart Agnew, an MEP, who claimed women 'don't have the ambition to go right to the top because something gets in the way… it's called a baby'.

Former treasurer and party donor Stuart Wheeler questioned the performance of women in business and sport, claiming: 'Chess, bridge, poker – women come absolutely nowhere. I think that has to be borne in mind… it may be that women are not as competitive.'

Slammed: Miss Harman criticised senior women in Ukip – such as Suzanne Evans (right) – for representing a party that she said wanted to take their sex 'backwards'. Left, Ukip leader Nigel Farage

Mr Farage, meanwhile, has said women in the City are worth 'far less to the employer' if they have a child 'and take two or three years off work' and made controversial remarks about 'ostentatious' breastfeeding in public places.

Miss Harman also cited Ukip's call for deeper public service cuts, which she said would hit women hardest, and criticised the party's alliance with the EFDD group in the European Parliament.

Members include Robert Ivashkievich, from the Polish New Right Party, whose leader until a few weeks ago was Janusz Korwin-Mikke. He has said women 'should not have the right to vote' and claimed that 'when women say no, they don't always mean it'.

Comments: Former Ukip treasurer and party donor Stuart Wheeler (pictured) questioned the performance of women in business and sport

Labour's analysis of Ukip Parliamentary candidates shows that 344 of 383 selected candidates are male. A Ukip candidate is more likely to be called 'Dave', 'Steve' or 'John' than be a woman.

Miss Evans said: 'This is an extraordinary outburst, vicious and completely uncalled for - I'm beginning to see why even her own colleagues call her Harpie Harman.

'I don't believe she's ever met Nigel Farage, but if she had, and if she'd worked with him, as I do, she'd find he's extremely knowledgeable, great company, has a wonderful sense of humour and is an all-round decent chap. He no more believes women are worth less than I do. His supposed 'anti-women' comments have been spun out of all proportion.

'Ukip is not sexist. That's utter rubbish. If Ukip was sexist, I wouldn't be deputy chairman and handed the huge responsiblity of delivering the general election manifesto.

'We wouldn't have seven female MEPs, all of them selected to stand by our members. And we certainly wouldn't have more frontbench spokeswomen than any other national party.

'Our spokeswomen have gritty roles too - transport and business, for example, not the usual fluffy 'women's issues' roles that other parties have so patronisingly handed out on many occasions.

'Like other women in Ukip, I can be confident I'm doing the job I'm doing because I was chosen to do it on merit, not because of ridiculous and demeaning quotas that mean I tick the right equality box. That's what Labour's policies have reduced women to and it infuriates me.