A WAR of words has erupted between candidates in the Bolton South East constituency after Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi labelled UKIP as "a racist party".

Ms Qureshi, who is hoping to be re-elected into the seat she won back in 2010, gave an interview on local community radio station Britasianbuzz, where she said: “I think UKIP play and pander to peoples insecurities and vulnerabilities and they are a racist party — please do be careful of them.”

She added: “You know the statements UKIP have made against Muslims, they think we are a threat, that we shouldn’t be here and don’t belong as part of this country.”

The comments have been strongly rejected by UKIP’s candidate in Bolton South East, Jeff Armstrong who accused Ms Qureshi of being scared of his party.

He said: “We are not racist, we are actually the only party who will expel members who are found to be part of the British National Party, the English Defence League and the National Front or any other right-wing extremists from the party.

“This is not the case with the Labour Party who I believe do have some members of the BNP and EDL — will Ms Qureshi come out and say that these people should be suspended from Labour?”

The Labour candidate said: “Of course I will say that any members of these far-right groups should be expelled from Labour immediately — but I don’t know of anyone who is or where Mr Armstrong is getting his information.”

She stood by the interview comments, adding: “UKIP is a party whose leader says that he feels uncomfortable hearing foreign languages or that people would be concerned if immigrants moved in next-door, so you tell me, what is that if it is not racist?"

Mr Armstrong said: “She is obviously very worried about us because she deliberately doesn’t speak about the other parties — there is a reason she is picking on UKIP and that is because we are the only party that can beat Labour in Bolton South East."