article: The pro-European cabinet minister said UKIP had no positive policies and was just "against" foreigners. UKIP leader Nigel Farage hit back by accusing Mr Clarke of holding millions of British people "in utter contempt". He said Mr Clarke was "obviously not interested" in winning back disaffected Tory voters at Thursday's local elections in England and Wales. It comes as UKIP accused the Tories of conducting a "morally reprehensible" smear campaign against its local election candidates. The anti-EU party has expanded rapidly, recruiting a record 1,732 candidates to contest Thursday's local elections. It admits it has not had the time or money to vet all of them properly. UKIP says it has evidence that smears about its candidates are being spread by Conservative Central Office, which it claims has been trawling would-be UKIP councillors' Twitter and Facebook pages for months. "Were we inclined to return the favour, we would find even more examples to use against them. "We deem that using our candidates as cannon fodder to undermine a political campaign (is) morally reprehensible and downright dirty," said a spokesman. The party is investigating six candidates over links to the BNP and other far right groups or alleged racist and homophobic comments, following stories in national and local newspapers. "I am glad they have found some candidates in the BNP because we don't want them. We are quite pleased. We don't want these people in the party," a UKIP spokesman said. He said the row showed the Conservative Party was "rattled" by UKIP, which is hoping to make significant gains in Tory heartlands on Thursday, but added: "This isn't scrutiny, it's smear." Asked on the BBC's Andrew Marr show about UKIP's claims, Transport Secretary Patrick McLaughlin said all candidates had to be scrutinised, but added: "I don't know anything about a smear campaign." But his cabinet colleague, Ken Clarke, minister without portfolio, added fuel to the row in an interview with Sky News. He said: "They of course have not been able to vet their candidates. Fringe right parties do tend to collect a number of waifs and strays... "Some of them are saying quite different things now they are in politics than their actual views." Asked whether he agreed with David Cameron's 2006 claim that UKIP was made up of "fruitcakes and closet racists", Mr Clarke replied: "I have met people who satisfy both those descriptions in UKIP. "Indeed, some of the people who have assured me they are going to vote UKIP I would put in that category. I rather suspect they have never voted for me." Mr Clarke said he was sure that "most of the UKIP people are perfectly nice when they are having a drink". But he added: "The trouble with UKIP really is it is just a protest party. "It is against the political class, it is against foreigners, it is against immigrants. But it does not have any very positive policies. They do not know what they are for." He added: "The temptation to ordinary voters to UKIP is these are very difficult times, the political
summary: Veteran Tory Ken Clarke has waded into his party's war of words with UKIP by branding them "a collection of clowns".