Ukip is a racist party, says Heseltine His accusation of racism provoked an angry reaction from Amjad Bashir, a Ukip MEP candidate, who challenged Lord Heseltine to an open public debate on why he thinks Ukip is racist. Mr Bashir, who is standing as an MEP in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, said: "Michael Heseltine has gone on TV and told the national broadcaster that Ukip is intrinsically racist. That is a very, very serious comment indeed. Well, he can come back and justify on national TV these baseless and repugnant remarks. I challenge him directly. He is an ignorant, out-of-touch dinosaur and quite frankly horrendously flippant by throwing about the word to suit his party's agenda. I hate to say it but the media is no better. They are behaving like ignorant and wilfully spiteful children in a playground. But this isn't child's play: it's an extremely serious accusation and an extremely serious issue. It's about time the media realised it was time to stop this disgusting slur of racism. This week Ukip was at the centre of a race row after an aide to Nigel Farage, the party leader, described a journalist as "of some form of ethnic extraction." Gawain Towler, a senior press officer, mistakenly sent a text to a photographer using the phrase to refer to Kiran Randhawa, a London Evening Standard reporter, ahead of Mr Farage's visit to the Conservative Party conference. He had intended to text one of Mr Farage's team in Manchester. The message read: "James, my fault but I told the Standard that Nigel would be arriving at approx 10.30 this morning. A source close to Mr Towler explained that he was trying to describe the appearance of the journalist.