UKIP have withdrawn support for their North Wiltshire parliamentary candidate in next month's general election over allegations he sent offensive tweets about Jews and Africans.

Paddy Singh has been suspended by the party after the Hope Not Hate organisation discovered the comments that were made in 2014 and 2015.

Mr Singh said: "My tweets were reactions to news items.

"Maybe I should not have made those comments and maybe I should have gone away to digest those articles before commenting on them. 

"There is no question of being racist but I would like to apologise to anyone I may have offended. 

A spokesman for Hope Not Hate said: "With comments about Chinese and Africans being animals and Israeli Jews being akin to Nazis, there was no way Singh should have ever been selected.

"He joins a long list of UKIP candidates making outrageous and offensive comments that was have long exposed."

Speaking at an event in Malmesbury last night, North Wiltshire's former MP James Gray, who is standing for re-election on June 8, said: "I'm absolutely horrified to hear of the tweets that Paddy Singh has reported to have made in recent years of an extremely racist kind.

"They may be criminal, they are certainly unpleasant and UKIP should throw him out of the party straight away.

"I doubt if he'll show his face during the election campaign because, frankly, the sort of things he's said in these tweets are absolutely disgraceful."

Brian Mathew, the Liberal Democrat candidate for North Wiltshire, said: "I haven't looked at the comments but if they are a public nusicance or regarded as upsetting thenit's a police matter."

UKIP have said they will hold a full investigation into the matter and will not be supporting Mr Singh at next month's general election.