Ukip has suspended one of its General Election candidates over a set of social media posts which prompted allegations of racism and were branded "totally unacceptable" by leader Paul Nuttall.
Paddy Singh will continue to be listed as Ukip candidate on the ballot paper for North Wiltshire in the June 8 election, but the party is withdrawing its endorsement of him.
Anti-racism campaigners highlighted tweets by the former cavalry officer dating back to 2014, in which he described Israelis as "basically Nazis in mentality" and said there was no hope of a ceasefire in the Middle East "with the Nazi Jews like wild dogs on the rampage".
Capt Singh also posted a message saying "it won't be long before the Chinese start eating human meat.
"It may be a super power, but they are like animals".
And in 2016 he tweeted a link to an article about the murder of a Pakistani politician with the comment: "Is Pakistan a country inhabited by humans or animals?"
A Ukip spokesman said: "As soon as these social media comments came to our attention, we suspended him from his membership of the party and we have removed our endorsement of him as candidate."
Capt Singh said he accepted the party's decision and would cease campaigning.
"I don't blame them at all that they felt they needed to suspend me," he told the Press Association.
"I will campaign for them if they allow me, but if they ask me not to, I won't. I wish them all the best."
Speaking from India, Capt Singh denied being a racist but accepted some of his comments had "gone too far".
"I have never been anti-anyone and I have nothing against Israeli people," he said.
"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."
He added: "Those tweets go back several years, when I had nothing to do with Ukip.
"I was commenting on articles that came out in the media.
"It was on the spur of the moment and it was my fault for being that spontaneous."
As the deadline for nominations has passed, Ukip is unable to remove Capt Singh's party designation from the ballot paper or nominate an alternative candidate for the constituency.
Speaking to PA during a campaign visit to Dagenham, Mr Nuttall said: "I only found out about this this morning.
"It was the party chairman who took the decision.
"It looks as if what he's said on Twitter is totally unacceptable and as a party we've done something about it."