A Ukip candidate was forced to apology after he appeared to mock the victims of the Mediterranean refugee crisis – just days after hundreds drowned.

Peter Endean, who is standing for Nigel Farage's party in council elections, re-tweeted an image with a caption that said: 'Labour's new floating voters. Coming to a country near you soon'.

Around 1,300 people are believed to have drowned in the past two weeks while trying to reach Europe in make-shift boats launched by people smugglers from Libya – with up to 950 perishing off the Italian island of Lampedusa over the weekend alone.

Peter Endean has apologised for retweeting a message mocking victims of the Mediterranean refugee crisis

Mr Endean, who is seeking election in Plymouth, Devon, and is also UKIP's communications manager for the city, has apologise and claims he re-tweeted it by mistake.

He said: 'I retweeted it by accident. It was not intentional and clearly a mistake. I apologise unreservedly.'

Earlier, Ukip's deputy chair Suzanne Evans described the situation as a 'devastating tragedy', but insisted Britain needed to be careful not to 'encourage' fleeing refugees from moving to the UK.

She said: 'We all want to welcome people here, but as idealistic as we might want to be - and it's in our nature to want to help everybody - you can't, unfortunately. That's the reality of it.'

Asked how many refugees Britain should take, Ms Evans replied: 'We have got to be talking thousands rather than tens of thousands.'

EU leaders including David Cameron will meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss a 10-point plan, drawn up in response to growing crisis.

Mr Endean, who is standing for Nigel Farage's party in council elections, re-tweeted the above image with a caption that said: 'Labour's new floating voters. Coming to a country near you soon'

Mr Endean apologised and claimed he re-tweeted it by mistake. He wrote: 'I retweeted it by accident. It was not intentional and clearly a mistake. I apologise unreservedly'

Brussels wants a military mandate to seize and destroy people-smugglers' boats, backed by increased budgets for Frontex, which manages the borders of the 28-nation bloc.

It comes after Mr Miliband this morning launched a furious attack on David Cameron and other EU leaders for leaving refugees to drown by stopping search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean.

The Labour leader said it was unacceptable to abandon thousands of immigrants boarding makeshift boats in Africa in the hope of making it to Europe. He also called on the UK to take a 'fare share' of refugees fleeing civil war.

Around 1,300 people are believed to have drowned in the past two weeks while trying to reach Europe in make-shift boats launched by people smugglers from Libya – with up to 950 perishing off the Italian island of Lampedusa over the weekend alone

EU leaders including David Cameron will meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss a 10-point plan, drawn up in response to growing crisis - but Ed Miliband said the response had been inadequate

Mr Miliband's remarks came amid growing alarm over the number of desperate families risking their lives to escape the raging civil wars in the Middle East and North Africa.

Speaking in Manchester this morning, Mr Miliband attacked the decision to abandon European rescue missions.

He said: 'The original decision was a mistake and it should be reversed.'