Ukip has suspended a General Election candidate for "abhorrent" abuse about a rival - including racial slurs and a threat to shoot him should be ever become prime minister.

The Mirror published a video of Robert Blay speaking to its investigators about Tory opponent Ranil Jayawardena at a public meeting on Saturday in Ramsgate addressed by party leader Nigel Farage.

Ex-Conservative Mr Blay - who is standing for election in North East Hampshire - noted that Mr Jayawardena had been tipped as Britain's first Asian prime minister.

The Mirror reported that he went on: "If he is I will personally put a bullet between his eyes. 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.

"I won't have this f***** as our prime minister. I absolutely loathe him."

Questioning Mr Jayawardena's background, he said: "His family have only been here since the 70s. You are not British enough to be in our parliament.

"I've got 400 years of ancestry where I live. He hasn't got that."

And he told the investigators of the safe seat: "But I've always said in my constituency you could put a monkey out there with a blue rosette on and it would win."

He accused his rival's father of having come to Britain from Sri Lanka and "ponced off us ... like all the East Europeans are".

"His name's Jayawardena and I'm told that name is a Tamil name.

"Well the Tamils were Indians which went to Sri Lanka to take it over and they got their asses kicked. So he comes here, ponces off us and then his son's in our political system."

A Ukip spokesman said Mr Blay had been suspended as soon as the remarks came to light - and offered an apology to Mr Jayawardena.

But it pointed to the candidate's "long career" as a Conservative as evidence such views were not confined to its ranks.

"The views expressed by Mr Blay are abhorrent," the spokesman said.

"As soon as they were brought to our attention he was suspended from the party. Any comments of this sort have absolutely no place in British politics or public life, and the party would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Mr Jayawardena for any distressed caused.

"Mr Blay has been immediately suspended from the party. Ukip acts immediately in circumstances such as these.

"Unfortunately, as every party has found over the past few months, internal vetting systems are not perfect, which is reflected in the fact that since January of this year, 300 Labour, Liberal Democrat, and Conservative Party candidates across the country have found themselves suspended, expelled, or even jailed for foul behaviour of all kinds.

"We are also deeply concerned that Mr Blay had a long career in the Conservative Party, including being his local association chairman - which goes to prove that issues with candidates such as these are not limited to Ukip."