UKIP has suspended one of its newly-elected councillors just five days after the election, after the politician was allegedly caught tweeting about "perverts", "poofs and dykes" and "Pakis".
Dave Small secured a position on the Redditch Borough Council after winning 665 votes, but could soon find himself removed from UKIP if his disciplinary hearing finds him guilty of any wrongdoing.
A UKIP spokesman said: "Dave Small has been suspended with immediate effect, pending a disciplinary hearing to determine the final outcome."
It was reported that in February 2013, Small posted tweets about equal marriage ("poofs and dykes") and gay people ("perverts").
In November 2012, Small also complained that he was not allowed to use the term "Paki", while in June he wrote: "I visiting the city of Birmingham recently and felt like a foreigner in the city of my birth, all around me I could hear the sound of jabbering in an alien voice.
"We also have the Pakistani' and the Somali's. Tell me Mr Cameron Why? the men wear their Pyjamas."
One of his UKIP collegues, Stuart Cross, a newly-elected councillor in Redditch South, said that Small should be kicked out of the party.
The suspension comes 18 months after UKIP chairman Geoffrey Clark published a number of controversial views, one of which asked the government to review the NHS and insist upon "compulsory abortion" for unborn babies with Down's Syndrome.
He said: "[A government review of the NHS should look at] compulsory abortion when the foetus is detected as having Down's, spina bifida or similar syndrome which, if it is born, could render the child a burden on the state as well as on the family".
He also said the review should also look at medical treatment for those aged over 80, "which is disproportionately costly to the NHS" and might also include "legalising euthanasia and giving free euthanasia advice to all folk over 80".
Another UKIP councillor resigned in February 2014 after making similar comments about abortion, writing:
"My view is that abortion is a necessary but not very pleasant evil. With current medical science where do you draw the line? My personal view is that up to nine weeks is OK but later than that, I couldn’t do it.
"In cases like Down's syndrome or spina bifida, I know children in that state and it is horrible for everyone. In cases like that termination might be the best thing.”
These comments came after Oxfordshire councillor David Silvester claimed that the recent floods had been God’s punishment for new gay marriage laws.
Speaking about Dave Small, Stonewall's acting chief executive, Ruth Hunt, told the Guardian that UKIP would be "judged by the company they keep".
"These reprehensible views have no place in modern Britain."