A Ukip candidate was forced to apology after he appeared to mock the victims of the Mediterranean refugee crisis – just days after hundreds drowned . Peter Endean , who is standing for Nigel Farage 's party in council elections , re-tweeted an image with a caption that said : 'Labour 's new floating voters . Coming to a country near you soon ' . Around 1,300 people are believed to have drowned in the past two weeks while trying to reach Europe in make-shift boats launched by people smugglers from Libya – with up to 950 perishing off the Italian island of Lampedusa over the weekend alone . Peter Endean has apologised for retweeting a message mocking victims of the Mediterranean refugee crisis . Mr Endean , who is seeking election in Plymouth , Devon , and is also UKIP 's communications manager for the city , has apologise and claims he re-tweeted it by mistake . He said : ' I retweeted it by accident . It was not intentional and clearly a mistake . I apologise unreservedly . ' Earlier , Ukip 's deputy chair Suzanne Evans described the situation as a 'devastating tragedy ' , but insisted Britain needed to be careful not to 'encourage ' fleeing refugees from moving to the UK . She said : 'We all want to welcome people here , but as idealistic as we might want to be - and it 's in our nature to want to help everybody - you ca n't , unfortunately . That 's the reality of it . ' Asked how many refugees Britain should take , Ms Evans replied : 'We have got to be talking thousands rather than tens of thousands . ' EU leaders including David Cameron will meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss a 10-point plan , drawn up in response to growing crisis . Mr Endean , who is standing for Nigel Farage 's party in council elections , re-tweeted the above image with a caption that said : 'Labour 's new floating voters . Coming to a country near you soon ' Mr Endean apologised and claimed he re-tweeted it by mistake . He wrote : ' I retweeted it by accident . It was not intentional and clearly a mistake . I apologise unreservedly ' Brussels wants a military mandate to seize and destroy people-smugglers ' boats , backed by increased budgets for Frontex , which manages the borders of the 28-nation bloc . It comes after Mr Miliband this morning launched a furious attack on David Cameron and other EU leaders for leaving refugees to drown by stopping search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean . The Labour leader said it was unacceptable to abandon thousands of immigrants boarding makeshift boats in Africa in the hope of making it to Europe . He also called on the UK to take a 'fare share ' of refugees fleeing civil war . Around 1,300 people are believed to have drowned in the past two weeks while trying to reach Europe in make-shift boats launched by people smugglers from Libya – with up to 950 perishing off the Italian island of Lampedusa over the weekend alone . EU leaders including David Cameron will meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss a 10-point plan , drawn up in response to growing crisis - but Ed Miliband said the response had been inadequate . Mr Miliband 's remarks came amid growing alarm over the number of desperate families risking their lives to escape the raging civil wars in the Middle East and North Africa . Speaking in Manchester this morning , Mr Miliband attacked the decision to abandon European rescue missions . He said : 'The original decision was a mistake and it should be reversed . ' Mr Miliband said : 'The logic is we are leaving people to die because it is a pull factor . We are better than that . We ca n't be leaving people to drown . '
Peter Endean re-tweeted a message with an image of the fleeing refugees . A caption read : 'Labour 's floating voters . Coming to a country near you ' It comes Thursday after up to 950 refugees drowned trying to reach Europe . Mr Endean later apologised 'unreservedly ' but insisted it was an accident . The council candidate from Plymouth said it was 'unintentional '