Andre Lampitt said Ed Miliband 'not a real Brit', 'most Nigerians are bad people' and Islam is an 'evil organisation'

The UK Independence party has suspended one of five supporters chosen to appear on its first European election broadcast after it emerged he had posted a series of racist and Islamophobic tweets that said Ed Miliband was "a Pole" and called for Africans to be left alone to kill themselves.

The election broadcast featured builder Andre Lampitt criticising eastern European immigration. He said: "Since the lads from eastern Europe are prepared to work for a lot less than anybody else, I've found it a real struggle."

In common with the other Ukip supporters featured on the broadcast, Lampitt is not named.

Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, admitted a serious mistake, saying: "Something's gone wrong with our systems, this guy should have been weeded out."

Lampitt will be edited out of any future showings of the broadcast, and pending his suspension he is expected to be disowned if he continues to try to stand as a Ukip candidate in Merton, south London, in the London council elections next month. Nominations have closed, but there is a 48-hour period in which he can be asked to stand aside.

A Ukip spokesman said: "We are deeply shocked that Mr Lampitt has expressed such repellent views. His membership of the party has been suspended immediately pending a full disciplinary process."

Lampitt's potentially unlawful tweets have been posted in the past few months. He describes Islam as a Satanic religion and claims Nigerians are bad people.

Farage has repeatedly said that he cannot control all the views of his party membership and insisted his posters are not designed to encourage racism.

But Lampitt was handpicked by Ukip headquarters to represent the views of working-class people in the UK, and it appears no checks were made to examine his wider opinions.

Lampitt describes himself as "born British in Rhodesia". In one tweet he claims that Islam is not a religion and calls it an "evil organisation". Another says: "Get over it, slavery was an act of war. you lost, stop being so damn jealous and move forward."

He also said he wants to start a website called Islamoutofuk.co.uk. He tweeted: "Most Nigerians are generally bad people I grew up in Africa and dare anyone to prove me wrong."

Condemning the Labour leader, he said: "Miliband is not a real Brit. I hope he never gets to be PM! He was only born here."

He also claimed statistics on rape would reveal a racial bias in the perpetrators, and another tweet stated: "All Muslims needs to leave Europe America and Oz,or denounce their pathetic Satanic religion."

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat president, said he was aghast at the tweets. "I cannot believe that Ukip did not check the comments of this man before they used him in their broadcast. His staggeringly racist views might even make the BNP wince with embarrassment.

"Just a week after the French National Front opened their arms to Ukip, with comments like these it's easy to see why they did. Ukip might wrap themselves in the flag, but these comments are deeply offensive to anyone with decent British values."

The tweets were taken down on Thursday afternoon, but screen shots are in circulation on the internet.

Other tweets say "people who live off benefits for over a year should be excluded from society they're just lazy. Survival of the fittest not fat".

On another occasion Lampitt asked in a tweet: "What have Muslims brought to the table of development? Car? Phone? Computer? TV? Train? Aeroplane? Please enlighten me."

The suspension will raise fresh questions about Ukip's vetting process. It is very hard for any political party to prevent the odd extremist standing as a councillor, but it seems a strategic failure not to check out the backgrounds of people appearing in what had been a highly professional election broadcast.

Officials from political parties normally make it a basic requirement that they do rigorous checks on people who appear in their broadcasts.The timing is also unfortunate for Ukip, since it believed it had fended off claims that its £1.5m poster campaign was racist. Farage is in a swing through northern cities in a bid to capture the Labour vote, and will not welcome this distraction in the opening days of a campaign in which he is hoping to cause a political earthquake by coming first in the popular vote in the European elections.

Lampitt's tweets

@NaraHodge I believe being British it is earned through generations of existence not through birth – just my opinion though

@Conservatives well Ed Miliband is Polish and not British so how'd he know what's good for Britain?

@FiratGunay @NHSMuddle oh for Gods sake get over it, slavery was an act of war. you lost stop being so damn jealous and move forward

@DowHeater @mardyarse1 @SkepTorr @TellMamaUK I want to start a website islamoutofuk.co.uk :)

@Veeroni3 @trexmama I was born and grew up in Africa please please leave Africa for Africans let them kill themselves off don't go there

@misscameron7 @Ironwand that's Britain. Enoch Powell was right!