David Cameron called Ukip supporters "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists" and Ken Clarke called the party "clowns" who had no policies except being "against" immigrants.
Ukip in turn have accused the Tories of raiding the Facebook and Twitter pages of their candidates and running a "morally reprehensible smear campaign."
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But there are a fair few former Ukip candidates who have merited some of the labels given to the them by Cameron and Clarke.
Here, HuffPost UK takes a look at some of the rogue candidates in the party's short but chequered history.