by Media Hawk on 4 April 2013 20:57

UKIP sources tell me that Friends of Palestine Chairman Gareth Shanks is becoming a "serious liability to the party" after a raft of incidents online.

UKIP members have reacted furiously to Shanks's latest "joke" online where he branded females serving in the British Armed Forces as, "slags or lesbians".

Responding to a question posited on the Ask.fm website, which asked, "Are they any women in the army" Shanks replied, "Yes. But the general rule is they're either slags or lesbians".

After being confronted about his "misogynistic" views, Shanks replied to critics on Twitter with an animated image stating, "I don't give a f**k".

One critic by the name of Anne M, who is listed as the Vice Chair of UKIP in West Leeds and Pudsey said, "Believe it or not, UKIP needs women. You think we'll hang around to be disrespected like that?" while others commented, "Not banter, just offensive. Women have enough to contend with in the forces w/o petulant arrogant little misogynists like you."

Shanks describes himself on his Twitter biography as an "aspiring rifleman" and has previously been involved in other embarrassing incidents for UKIP wherein he mused upon the Middle East conflict in the following manner: "The genocide of the Palestinian people by the current Israeli government is no different to the genocide of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany."

Shanks responded to his critics today by stating, "It's clearly a joke, my account doesn't represent UKIP and i'm fairly sure every person who followers me knows that".