NIGEL Farage's UKIP has been plunged into a fresh racism row after one of its candidates suggested Mo Farah, the double Olympic champion, was not British because he was African.

The development came after another council candidate for the anti-EU party resigned from it after making offensive comments about comedian Lenny Henry. William Henwood, who suggested Mr Henry should emigrate to a "black country", was due to stand for UKIP in next month's council election in Enfield, north London.

But a party spokesman said Mr Henwood had resigned his membership of UKIP after it was "mutually agreed this would be the best course", acknowledging that his comments had "caused enormous offence".

The party has already begun action to expel two members after an internal investigation found evidence of links to far right groups.Last night, it emerged that David Wycherley, standing for UKIP in Walsall, had asked his Facebook friends to explain "how Mo Farah, an African from Somalia, who trains in America, won a gold medal for Great Britain?" Mr Farah, who was born in Mogadishu but moved to London aged eight, became a double Olympic champion for Britain at the 2012 Olympics and was later awarded a CBE by the Queen for services to athletics.

A UKIP spokesman, asked about Mr Wycherley's remarks, declined to comment, saying he had not seen them.

Earlier, Mr Farage insisted attempts to portray UKIP as racist would prove a "disastrous mistake" for the established political parties.

He likened attempts to portray his party as racist with the dismissal by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown of a voter, who complained about the impact of immigration during the 2010 General Election campaign, as a "bigot".