Britain has become a “racist” country because Conservative and Labour governments have let in too many immigrants, according to a Ukip councillor.

The remarks by Trevor Shonk, a member of Kent County Council, were another embarrassment for the party’s leader Nigel Farage, whose popularity has been dented by the publicity given to ill-considered comments by him and other Ukip representatives.

The party tried to distance itself from the remarks by Mr Shonk, who told the BBC’s World at One programme: “The two main parties have made the country racist because of the influx we have had. When I’ve done leaflets, every shopkeeper, whether they are Asian or English-born … they’re concerned about the influx. It hasn’t been staggered; it’s just overload. We haven’t got the care homes, we haven’t got the houses for our own.”

His comments follow Mr Farage’s much-ridiculed claim that the reason he was late for an engagement in Wales was that immigrants had caused congestion on the M4. Ukip also lost its candidate in Thurrock, Kerry Smith, because of a recorded telephone conversation in which he made inflammatory comments.