SALISBURY'S Ukip parliamentary candidate described Russian, Indian and Chinese people as "freaks" in an attack on foreign aid at the Bishop Wordsworth's School hustings on Friday night.

Paul Martin made the comments during a heated debate on international development in which he said his party would slash the department's spending from £9 billion to £2 billion.

He told the other candidates: “During the time of Conservative-led party process, over the last five years, the debt has grown from £800 billion to £1.5 trillion and you are telling me, you egotistical maniacs, that you need to give money to freaks in Russia, China, India...”

Liberal Democrat Reeten Banerji said he didn’t see his “international brothers as freaks” and that for every £1 spent on international aid, a further £9 of trade was generated in the economy.

Conservative John Glen declared it “absolutely right” that the government should spend 0.7 per cent of GDP on international development — Labour's Tom Corbin agreed.

Green candidate Alison Craig said: “We firmly believe that foreign aid should increased to one per cent of GDP. We are the sixth richest country in the world for heaven's sake and if we can’t afford to help developing countries then we really should be ashamed.”

Independent candidate King Arthur Pendragon said he did not understand why the government was giving foreign aid to countries that had space and nuclear weapons programmes.

He added: “Before we give any money away, we should bring our own people out of fuel poverty.”

The school hustings mainly focussed on national and international issues, with the hopefuls fielding questions on tuition fees, Trident, climate change and the voting system.

The candidates also disagreed on rise of foodbanks after Salisbury charity The Trussell Trust reported their usage had increased by 19 per cent last year.

Mr Banerji challenging the Conservative record on the issue.

He said: “Foodbanks came into place because of Iain Duncan Smith [former Conservative minister] and the attack on the poor and the vulnerable.

“We need to be dealing with the real issues, which is to pay the living wage.”

John Glen said he had produced a report with opposition MP Frank Field which included 77 recommendations for tackling foodbank usage.

He said: “It is quite well documented that foodbanks were up and running well before we [the Conservatives] came to power.

“If you think it is all about delayed benefit payments then you must look at the figures more closely, there are a whole number of other reason cited by those who use foodbanks.

“Over the last ten years, the proportion of income that the poorest ten per cent have had to spend on food, on housing and clothing has increased. We have seen foodbanks explode in use the the US, France and Germany.”

Mr Corbin blamed the rise of foodbanks on zero-hours contracts and the low minimum wage.

Mr Martin also drew a challenge from the crowd over the Ukip manifesto pledge to abolish the Department of Energy and Climate Change and repeal the Climate Change Act.

The Ukip candidate said: “In Roman times the temperatures were three degrees higher than it is now so don’t tell me this is all about human relationships with the environment, it is much more complex than that.”