09:56

There has been some minor turmoil in the Ukip heartland of Clacton-on-sea, formerly held by the party under Douglas Carwell, after Ukip’s national executive rejected the local candidate for the seat in favour of a senior party member.

Jeff Bray, a local councillor, had been selected by Ukip in Clacton over Paul Oakley, a London-based barrister and member of the national executive, who contested the Mole Valley constituency in Surrey in 2015.

However, Ukip’s NEC has declined to let Bray through its vetting process after social media messages emerged from accounts linked to him which disparaged Muslims.

One tweet asked whether Jimmy Savile’s actions would have been similarly condemned “if he had been Muslim”.

Speaking to the Huffington Post, which unearthed the messages, Bray said he did not recognise many of them, but said he had posted the comment about Savile.

A Ukip source said the NEC had not been able to confirm what messages were linked to Bray, but had decided to remove him from the seat to avoid the issue dominating the campaign. Bray had appealed, but this was rejected on Tuesday night, confirming Oakley in his place.

The source said: “There would have been advantages to a local candidate, but after the hustings Jeff only won narrowly against Paul – it was 19 votes to 17 – so it’s not as if he is not welcome.”

It is nonetheless a reverse for the party, which took the seat by a 3,400 majority in 2015 under Carswell, who had defected from the Conservatives and won a byelection the year before.

In March, Carswell quit the party, declaring its work done, and then opted to not fight the seat as an independent.