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UKIP has described its own candidate as 'abhorrent' after a Mirror investigator filmed him threatening to SHOOT a Conservative political rival.

Robert Blay, a candidate for North East Hampshire, made the sickening threat of violence against Conservative Ranil Jayawardena, who he claimed had been groomed by the party to be the country’s first British Asian Prime Minister.

The 55-year-old, who worked as a bank accountant and used to be a member of the Conservative Party, told the Mirror investigator in the video: “If he is I will personally put a bullet between his eyes.

"If this lad turns up to be our Prime Minister I will personally put a bullet in him. That’s how strong I feel about it."

The shocking remarks were made to a Daily Mirror investigator at a public meeting on Saturday attended by party leader Nigel Farage.

Speaking after suspending Mr Blay, UKIP said in a statement: "The views expressed by Mr Blay are abhorrent.

"As soon as they were brought to our attention he was suspended from the party.

"Any comments of this sort have absolutely no place in British politics or public life, and the party would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Mr Jayawardena for any distress caused."

North East Hampshire is one of Britain’s safest Tory seats with a majority at the last election of more than 18,500 and Jayawardena, who is Conservative Deputy Leader of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, is hot favourite to become its next MP.

Blay’s outrageous comments were filmed by our reporter outside a meeting where Nigel Farage was delivering a speech to voters in the seaside town of Ramsgate, Kent, part of the Thanet South seat the UKIP leader is trying to capture.

Speaking about his own prospects of defeat by his Tory opponent in the election, the UKIP man said: “It makes me quite sick.

"But I’ve always said in my constituency you could put a monkey out there with a blue rosette on and it would win.”

Blay added: “His (Jayawardena’s) family have only been here since the Seventies. You are not British enough to be in our parliament.

“I’ve got 400 years of ancestry where I live. He hasn’t got that.

“I said to his dad about two months ago – ‘When did you come to Britain?’ He said ‘In the “Seventies’.”

“I said ‘Why did you come?’ He said ‘Things weren’t very good politically in Sri Lanka and I came here and I could train as an accountant’.”

“So he’s come here and ponced off us hasn’t he like all the East Europeans are? That’s what is happening. Continually.”

Blay went on: “His name’s Jayawardena and I’m told that name is a Tamil name. Well the Tamils were Indians which went to Sri Lanka to take it over and they got their asses kicked. So he comes here, ponces off us and then his son’s in our political system.”

In another shocking rant, Blay suggested Jayawardena, whose parents are from Sri Lanka, had deliberately made his wife pregnant in order to win votes.

He added: “He’s [Jayawardena] 29 years old. He’s got his missus to drop a kid just before the Election.

“He’s planned the birth of the child, there’s no doubt about that. He’s a slippery b******. I’ve worked with him in the Tories.”

(Image: Splash)

During his chat with our reporter, Blay also described how he called the police following a heated row with an East European voter after he stuck a UKIP election leaflet through his door.

“He’s in my country,” Blay fumed: “He’s a f****** immigrant and I’m not putting up with that s***, because that was abuse. “

UKIP has put Britain’s withdrawal from the EU and stricter controls on immigration at the heart of its manifesto and Nigel Farage has had to repeatedly fend off questions during the election about his party having racists in its ranks.

Shadow Business secretary Chuka Umunna last week claimed that a “virus of racism” runs through UKIP.

Mr Farage described the claim as “complete and utter rubbish.” However our undercover probe revealed an ugly side of UKIP’s campaign.