The badly-received tweet has since been deleted

UK indie rock band The Rifles today tweeted their support of UKIP ahead of May's general election, before it was deleted and claimed their account was hacked.

The band broke into the music scene nearly a decade ago with their debut album No Love Lost. Their most recent album, 2014's None the Wiser, was their highest charting release.

In an apparently shocking move at the time, the band's Twitter account seemed to come out in support of UKIP earlier today, tweeting to their 18,000 followers: "Seems like UKIP are the only ones with the balls to make a change!"

The band then deleted the Tweet, informed followers that they had been hacked and thanked fans for their support:

Please ignore the tweet regarding UKIP. Someone thinks their quite funny and hacked our twitter account #wankers — The Rifles (@theriflesband) April 15, 2015

We've had an issue with our twitter account, why anyone would hack us is beyond on us. thanks to those showing us the vote of confidence X — The Rifles (@theriflesband) April 15, 2015

Amongst UKIP's policies for this year's general election is the desire to "review funding for public bodies which promote divisiveness through multiculturalism."