Rising star of the Labour party Chuka Umunna has shrugged off a vile online race-hate campaign against him - because he is 'used to it'.

The shadow business secretary was attacked as a 'spear chucker' and a 'cave man' after Ukip supporters reacted angrily to his suggestion that many of them lacked basic internet skills

Mr Umunna said 'a lot' of Ukip supporters were 'disconnected' from the internet and could not do basic things like sending emails or browsing the internet.

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna has been subjected to vile online racist abuse after appearing on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday

Following his remarks, which Mr Umunna's aides said had been 'wilfully misconstrued', he was targetted by a Ukip email campaign to 'help him understand' why they supported Mr Farage.

But the campaign was hijacked by racists, who bombarded the MP for Streatham with abuse on a Facebook site.

One person wrote: 'Maybe he uses drums to communicate perhaps.' Another said: 'This guy calls himself Chukka 'Spear' Umunna.'

One said: 'I say he needs immediate deportation from Britain back to whatever 3rd world hellhole he crawles out of.' 'That's rich coming from a cave man,' said another.

A source close to Mr Umunna admitted the abuse was 'nasty' but revealed the shadow cabinet minister was no longer surprised by it.

He said: 'We are used to getting a lot of racist abuse from UKIP supporters. So it's not that new. But it is fairly shocking, some of that stuff - it is appalling. It speaks for itself.

'A lot of that stuff is quite nasty and shocking. It's certainly notable how there's a lot of nasty stuff out there. It's something he gets quite a bit of on Twitter. It is very nasty.'

The abuse was sparked after Mr Umunna appeared on BBC One’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday.

He said the BBC had carried out 'some very interesting research' on people being unable to use the internet.

Mr Umunna said: 'One in five people in our economy cannot do the full basics online of sending and receiving an email, browsing the internet, filling in an online form.

'There has been a lot of talk of communities that have been disconnected from our global economy, and those of course were a lot of those voting for Ukip in the local and European elections.'

He added: 'Of that mass of people who can’t do the things that all of us take for granted, a very large number of them are from those communities.'

Mr Umunna is a close ally of Ed Miliband but has been tipped as a future Labour leader following a rapid rise since becoming an MP in 2010

Mr Umunna said the next Labour Government would be 'absolutely focused on connecting people into the global economy so they can realise their dreams and aspirations'.

The shadow business secretary's remarks appeared to echo similar claims by Ukip's own communities spokeswoman Suzanne Evans in the wake of the European elections last month, when the party failed to breakthrough in London.