ELECTION candidates in North Wiltshire have condemned a string of offensive messages posted online by their UKIP counterpart – including one in which he urged Muslims to become ‘Islamists’ if denied visas.

Captain Paddy Singh, pictured, has been suspended by UKIP after the Hope Not Hate organisation discovered the comments he made on Twitter.

However, his name will still appear on the ballot paper at next month’s general election. M

r Singh has tweeted more than 1,300 times, with many of his posts called ‘racist’ and ‘anti-Semitic’.

In the tweets, which were sent over several years, Mr Singh regularly referred to Jewish people as Nazis and compared the current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.

On August 2, 2014, he sent a tweet saying: “At times I ask myself were the Nazis right in herding the Jews into concentration camps”.

In other tweets, Mr Singh goes on to suggest that Chinese people, Pakistanis, Indians and Africans are “like animals” and uses a derogatory ethnic slur about the Japanese.

The most alarming tweet, sent by Mr Singh on Christmas Eve 2015, urges Muslims to become Islamists in response to being denied visas.

James Gray, who is standing for re-election as Conservative MP for North Wiltshire, said: “I’m 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 things he’s said in these tweets are disgraceful.”

Brian Mathew, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, agreed, adding: “Any racist comments are totally unacceptable.

“The fact that UKIP had selected a candidate that allegedly took this action speaks volumes about UKIP itself.”

Independent candidate Lisa Tweedie posted on her Facebook page: “I find these tweets absolutely appalling.

"Racism has no place in this country.

"I am glad UKIP have made the right decision to remove this candidate.”

Speaking from India, Mr Singh defended himself but admitted that some of his comments had overstepped the mark.

He told the Press Association: “I have never been anti-anyone and I have nothing against Israeli people.

"I would say I stick up for the underdog and I criticise the governments.

“If a government does something wrong, you can’t blame the people for it.

“Those tweets go back several years, when I had nothing to do with UKIP,” he added.

“I was commenting on articles in the media. It was on the spur of the moment and it was my fault for being spontaneous.”

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 have been exposed.”

UKIP has said that it will hold a full investigation and will not be supporting Mr Singh at the June 8 general election.