Nigel Farage was last night accused of recruiting ‘toffs for the top’ of Ukip after a candidate in a key target seat expressed fury that he had been ousted in favour of a star of the TV programme Gogglebox.

Andrew Michael, a wealthy, retired hotelier who features on the Channel 4 programme, has been parachuted in as Mr Farage’s candidate in Hastings and Rye, where the sitting Tory MP holds a wafer-thin majority.

Now the deposed candidate has given vent to his anger in a leaked email to local party members in which he condemns Ukip’s policy of recruiting defecting Tory MPs and celebrities. Ralph Atkinson calls on Ukip members to bombard Mr Farage with complaints about his treatment, and claims that his party boasts ‘standards of democracy lower than the unelected European Commission’.

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First choice: Andrew Michael, a wealthy, retired hotelier who features on the Channel 4 programme alongside his family (above), has been parachuted in as Mr Farage’s candidate in Hastings and Rye

The row has blown up just days before Mr Farage will be seen in an alcohol-fuelled encounter with two other stars of the hit show, in which viewers watch people watching television.

Steph and Dom Parker have been filmed knocking back glasses of wine and champagne with Mr Farage for a TV special which ends with the Ukip leader falling over, smashing a glass and having to borrow a pair of his host’s trousers.

Row: Ralph Atkinson claims that he was kicked out in favour of Mr Michael. He has vented his anger in an email to local Ukip party members

Mr Michael, 55 – whose Gogglebox appearances with his wife Carolyne and two of their four children have included discussions about whether Ukip is racist – was selected for the seat last week shortly after Mr Atkinson was removed in a coup which he says was orchestrated by the party’s head office.

In the email, seen by The Mail on Sunday, Mr Atkinson complains that he has ‘apparently been removed as Hastings & Rye Prospective Parliamentary Candidate’, and says sarcastically, in reference to the recent by-election victories of ex-Tories Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless: ‘Obviously potential candidates who have defected from the Conservatives will be preferred to long-term party members. This is in line with party policy which is to recruit more ‘‘toffs for the top’’ in order to win votes from the disenfranchised working-class voters, who exist in great numbers here’.

Mr Atkinson, a former Ukip spokesman on immigration, adds: ‘Any person wishing to complain in a civilised fashion about this situation should send to [he gives Mr Farage’s private email address].’

Hastings, which is held by Tory MP Amber Rudd with a majority over Labour of under 2,000, is number 54 on Ukip’s ‘hitlist’ of Conservative-held seats. Mr Michael is filmed for Gogglebox at his £1.5 million house, which, far from being in the Hastings constituency, is in Brighton. In one recent edition, Mr Michael, who is of Greek-Cypriot origin, discussed the alleged racism of Ukip’s ‘calypso’ song with his family. At one point his children laugh sarcastically: ‘Wouldn’t want anyone thinking Ukip is racist.’

And in another episode, Mr Michael’s wife Carolyne says: ‘That Mark Reckless is not exactly very charismatic is he?’ After Mr Michael agrees, she adds: ‘I think if you were a donkey and you had the Ukip rosette on, they would vote for you.’

Favoured: Mr Atkinson says, in reference to ex-Tories like Douglas Carswell (right with Mr Farage): ‘Potential candidates who have defected from the Conservatives will be preferred to long-term party members.'

Last week it was revealed that more than a dozen party activists had resigned amid complaints that Mr Farage and his ‘undemocratic cabal’ had stopped long-serving Ukip members from standing as MPs in winnable seats.

Last night, a Ukip spokesman said: ‘It is Ukip policy that candidates in target seats are verified by the NEC. In the case of Hastings, it was felt the candidate was not suitable.