The reason poor, badly educated people are fat is because they like being fat, according to Gordon Gillick, the Ukip member of Cambridgeshire County Council.

He contributed his thoughts on the undeserving poor during a debate on whether the council should focus its reduced resources on the most socially deprived parts of the county.

“The people we describe as obese, thick, badly educated, whichever way you like to phrase it... they enjoy being 25 stone, they’re not discontent, they’re just a burden on the state,” the Cambridge News reports him saying.

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He then appeared to contradict himself by blaming unemployment on competition from East European migrants who were willing to live in their cars or “14 to a house”.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Ian Manning told Gillick he was a "fool" for making such statements.

“Demonising people on benefits, saying people on benefits want to be there, is a complete misunderstanding of how horrible it is to live a life dependant upon the state.”

Last November, Gillick provoked a flood of complaints after he asked three children from foster homes what it felt like to be “takers”.

An investigation concluded that Cllr Gillick had failed to treat three teenagers in care, who were visiting Shire Hall for a training session, with respect.

Cllr Gillick, who is a father of 10 and has 42 grandchildren, said in a letter to the council that he “completely accepted” the findings.

His wife, Victoria, was briefly famous in the 1980s for her campaign to prevent doctors prescribing contraceptives to under-16s without parental consent.