Ukip candidate apologises for making offensive remarks

A Ukip candidate has issued a "wholehearted and unreserved apology" after he was recorded making a series of offensive remarks about gay people.

Kerry Smith, a member of both Essex County Council and Basildon District Council, was heard describing gay Ukip members as "poofters" and mocking the party's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group.

In the recordings of phone calls obtained by the Mail on Sunday, Smith also joked about shooting people from Chigwell in a "peasant hunt" and referred to a Chinese woman as a "Chinky bird".

He also accepted that claims in the calls about party leader Nigel Farage and other senior figures were "completely wrong" and "fuelled by frustrations at the time".

Smith said he had been under great stress at the time of the recording, said to have been two-and-a-half years ago, and had been taking strong painkillers.

He was reinstated as the party's candidate for the South Basildon and East Thurrock last week in place of ex-Tory minister Neil Hamilton.

"I wish to issue a wholehearted and unreserved apology to those I have offended within the party and anyone else," he said.

He said "at the time of this recording I was considering my resignation due to major management changes which I have since discovered I completely misread and misunderstood".

"For the record I was also on a strong morphine based prescription medication for a back injury."