The head of Ukip's youth wing has come out fighting after the junior party's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender chief quit.

Tom Booker stood down as LGBT head of Young Independence after more than three years leading the organisation. Booker, who founded the LGBT group, said he could "no longer defend" or campaign for the party.

The move came after racist comments from Ukip Thanet councillor Rozanne Duncan came to light and just days before Ukip's spring conference in Margate.

The head of Young Independence, Jack Duffin, told IBTimes UK he was happy for the former LGBT chief. But the Ukip parliamentary candidate argued young people in other political parties are treated as "tokens".

"When we see these problems we deal with them. These stories happen to all parties. I'm proud of Ukip because we deal with these issues and don't hide them in our membership and wait for the media to get hold of them," he said.

"We promote issues across the board, we don't target any small group or anything but we work with them. We don't target any small minority because that's not the way we operate as a party.

"You'll never seen an all-woman shortlist in Ukip because we value everyone on what they bring to the table. We're not a party of tokens. Young people in other parties are just a token - they're just used to go leafleting."

The comments come after a poll from ComRes for ITV revealed more than four in ten (44%) of voters believe the Eurosceptic party has a racist agenda.

But the survey, which questioned more than 2,000 people, also revealed 36% of respondents trust the party on immigration, with the Tories well behind on 19% and Labour on 14%.

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