UKIP MEP candidate Carl Benjamin says 'Personally I find racist jokes funny' after offensive video is uncovered

A Ukip MEP candidate said "personally, I find racist jokes funny" after a video was uncovered in which he made offensive remarks.

Carl Benjamin, who is running as UKIP’s South West candidate in the EU elections, posted the video in 2015, in which he calls a disabled person a "retard" and uses racist terms.

In the footage obtained by Sky News, the self-styled "free speech extremist" records himself speaking over an anti-discrimination video.

When an woman explains it is not acceptable to call Asian people “c***k”, Mr Benjamin replies: "You lose! It's actually just f****** fine and I'll tell you why – because Asians are privileged."

He then tells the woman to “f*** off” and adds that it is “OK” for him to use the racist term “because racism is power plus prejudice".

Over the course of the clip, he also calls a woman with Downs Syndrome a "retard", a black man a n*****, and posts anti-Semitic pictures over an image of a Jewish man.

Asked about the remarks, Mr Benjamin told Sky News : "I'm not really interested in discussing any of these comments because, you see, I've had something like 400 million views on my YouTube channels in total.

"I've got a huge audience. If people want to go see them they can go watch them on my channel and see the context of them for themselves.

"Personally, I find racist jokes funny," he added, according to Sky News.

Mr Benjamin previously faced questions about his offensive views during the party's EU election launch, after he was found to have tweeted that he "wouldn't even rape" Labour MP Jess Phillips.

Asked if it is OK to joke about rape Mr Benjamin replied "Yes".

UKIP declined to comment on the video, but party leader Gerard Batten has previously defended his candidate on the grounds of free speech.

Labour MP David Lammy responded to Mr Benjamin's remarks on Twitter, writing: "Words cannot express how deeply sad it is that in Britain in 2019 we have people who use the word n***** running to be elected officials. This is an ideology of hate. It must be confronted and defeated."