Ukip leader Nigel Farage wanted to expel the Folkestone and Hythe candidate Janice Atkinson over her controversial “ting tong” comment, a senior party aide has claimed.

Mrs Atkinson was subsequently forced out of the party in the middle of the election campaign after a separate controversy about an expenses claim.

But Mr Farage’s chief campaign aide said he had wanted her out for comments recorded by a television crew eight months earlier.

She had described Ukip supporter Fa Munday as “a ting tong from somewhere” while out canvassing in Ramsgate in August 2014.

It led to Mr Farage having to make a personal apology to both Fa Munday and her husband Vince, who was recently elected a Ukip councillor in Thanet.

Mrs Atkinson survived but was subsequently expelled at the height of the election campaign after allegations about an inflated expenses claim surfaced. She was replaced by former Ashford councillor Harriet Yeo as the Folkestone and Hythe candidate.

Now Raheem Kassam, who was Mr Farage’s right-hand man during his unsuccessful South Thanet campaign, says the leader wanted to push her out much earlier.

“Nigel wanted her out before that. She should have gone when she said ‘ting-tong’” he told The Guardian.

Mrs Atkinson, who remains an MEP for the South East, had her knuckles rapped over the “ting tong” comment but was not formally disciplined.

She is appealing her expulsion from the party over the expenses claims.