

A friend of former UKIP candidate Kerry Smith has called a radio station to defend him from accusations of homophobia and racism.

Mr Smith, one of the party’s senior parliamentary candidates, quit yesterday after being caught on tape ranting about “f**king disgusting old poofters”.

He also referred to a Chinese woman by a racial slur, calling her a “Chinky bird”, makes false fraud allegations against party leader Nigel Farage, and jokes about “shooting peasants”.

A UKIP supporter and friend of Mr Smith, identified as ‘David in Basildon’, called in to LBC to claim his party wasn’t homophobic or racist – because he has gay friends.

He said: “I’m a UKIPper, I am not a racist, I’m not homophobic, in fact I have people who are gay as friends. My eldest daughter also has a Chinese friend.

“This whole thing has been totally taken out of proportion. I mean, I said stuff years ago. Would I stand by stuff I said years ago?”

He continued to use the word “Chinky”, “Jap” and “Kraut” live on air – while trying to claim that only UKIP members would get in trouble for saying such words.

The man later revealed he was actually a friend of the candidate who caused the row in the first place, saying: “I know [Kerry]. I ran for the party, four years ago to become a local councillor. It was him who got me into the party.

“Kerry is an outspoken person, he is a person who loves his country, he is a person who believes in his country.

“As he has said, he was under a lot of stress at the time, he was on a high dosage of pain relief at the time.

“Morphine can affect different people in different ways.”