British Conservative cabinet minister Ken Clarke has described some people intending to vote the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the upcoming local elections as racists.
Speaking to Sky News Murnaghan programme on Sunday, the minister without portfolio accused the party of having no positive policies and being merely “against” immigrants and foreigners.
Clarke also described UKIP candidates for Thursday’s English local elections as “clowns” and “indignant, angry people” and warned that they should not be allowed to control county councils in England.
“They (UKIP leaders) of course have not been able to vet their candidates. Fringe right parties do tend to collect a number of waifs and strays,” he said.
It comes as UKIP said the Tories conduct a “morally reprehensible” smear campaign against its would-be councilors in local elections.
Asked whether he agreed with British Prime Minister David Cameron’s assessment in 2006 that the party was full of “fruitcakes and closet racists”, Clarke replied, “I have met people who satisfy both those descriptions in UKIP.”
According to a recent YouGov poll for the Sunday Times, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats with support levels of 31 and 11 percent respectively, were put behind the Labour’s 40 percent support. It also found that the current vote share for the UKIP stands at 11 percent.