Even though we've said 'even for Ukip this is really bad' before, this is really, really bad

Robert Blay (Picture: PA handout)

A Ukip candidate was suspended last night after he threatened to shoot his Conservative Party rival.

Robert Blay spoke to an undercover reporter about Tory Ranil Jayawardena. “If this lad turns up to be our Prime Minister I will personally put a bullet in him. That’s how strong I feel about it,” he said in recorded comments filmed by the Daily Mirror.

“I won’t have this f----r as our Prime Minister. I absolutely loathe him.” Mr Jayawardena, who is the Conservative deputy leader of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, is favourite to become the next MP for North-East Hampshire, one of Britain’s safest Conservative seats.

Mr Blay, a former member of the Conservative Party, also appeared to suggest that Mr Jayawardena, whose parents are from Sri Lanka, had deliberately made his wife pregnant in order to win votes.

“He’s 29 years old. He’s got his missus to drop a kid just before the election. He’s planned the birth of the child, there’s no doubt about that. He’s a slippery b-----d. I’ve worked with him in the Tories.”

A spokesman for Ukip said last night: “Mr Blay has been suspended with immediate effect."

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