Ukip has sent earthquakes through the British political landscape over the past five years, sending fear into the campaign headquarters of both David Cameron’s Tories and Ed Miliband’s Labour party.

But along with these successes have come numerous gaffes, which have somehow not managed to sink the party, or its leader Nigel Farage. Here are just three of the biggest gaffes to have made the headlines.

Gaffe #1: Kerry Smith

One the most recent and controversial of these gaffes comes in two parts. Firstly, Ukip candidate for the South Basildon and East Thurrock parliamentary seat Kerry Smith stepped down in December 2014 after the Daily Mail obtained a recorded phone call in which Mr Smith made racist and homophobic remarks, as well as joking about shooting poor people in Chigwell in a “peasant hunt”.

Mr Smith mocked gay party members and said the fact Ukip’s LGBTQ group was allowed to use the party logo with a rainbow flag was “f****** disgusting”.

Mr Smith later issued a “wholehearted and unreserved apology“.

Gaffe #2: South Basildon and East Thurrock candidate selection

Before Mr Smith’s remarks made headlines, the selection process for the seat, which the party saw as winnable, was a gaffe in itself.

Mr Smith had originally been selected as the candidate for the seat, but replaced by high profile former Labour activist Natasha Bolter.

But that didn’t last long. She quit the party in December 2014 after accusing Ukip general secretary Roger Bird of sexual harassment. Mr Bird denied the claims, saying they had a consensual relationship. He was cleared before Christmas after revealing texts between the two of them.

It didn’t stop there. Former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton was seen as the likely candidate to represent Ukip in the seat until a letter from the party’s finance committee was leaked to Channel 4 News. The letter asked Mr Hamilton to explain some of his expenses.

Mr Smith was handed back the selection but was forced to resign after his comments came to light.

Gaffe #3: Godfrey Bloom

Ukip’s unofficial gaffe secretary, former MEP Godfrey Bloom left the party after coming out with offensive remarks on more than one occasion, as well as other actions that meant he could no long remain in his position.

Firstly, Bloom was made to answer for his use of the term ‘bongo bongo land’. He was caught on camera saying British aid money should not be sent to “bongo bongo land” back in August 2013.

After surviving that, Mr Bloom caused more offence at the 2014 Ukip annual conference. He joked that a room debating women in politics was “full of sluts” because they did not clean behind the fridge.

To complete the hat-trick, at the same conference Mr Bloom was filmed hitting Channel 4 News’ political correspondent Michael Crick with a conference brochure, shown in the video below. Crick confronted Bloom on the issue of there being no black people on the brochure front cover, something they probably should have looked into given they were trying to show voters Ukip isn’t just a party of closet racists.

Featured image credit: Youtube/ Channel 4 News