UK immigration: Ukip councillor Trevor Shonk says “overload” has made the country racist

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Overloaded UK immigration has caused the country to become racist, according to a Ukip councillor. 
 
Trevor Shonk has roles on both Kent county council and Ramsgate city council and said the immigration policies of both Labour and the Conservatives had led to racist sentiment in the UK.
 
Speaking to the BBC, Shonk said:
 
The two main parties that have been running this country have made the country racist because of the influx that we have had. 
 
When I’ve done leaflets every shopkeeper, whether Asian or English-born, they’re concerned about the influx.
 
It hasn’t been staggered, it’s just overload. We haven’t got the care homes, we haven’t got the houses for our own.
 
Shonk’s analysis isn’t backed publically by either his party, or the data. Analysis by City PM has shown that areas that voted for Ukip in the European election in May 2014 were actually likely to have proportionately fewer non-British nationals than other areas, as these maps show.
 
The second map shows the same data with areas that voted for Ukip MEPs shown in purple:
 
Other research has shown that immigrants are less likely to claim benefits than UK nationals, and, as many come to study, are actually beneficial to the ageing UK workforce.
 
Ukip’s deputy chairwoman, Suzanne Evans, said she did not believe the UK was a racist country:
 
I think Britain is actually a very accommodating country and I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination can be termed racist.
 
I know what councillor Shonk meant. Perhaps he didn’t express it as well as he could. There has of course been a massive increase in immigration which people find incredibly difficult to deal with.
 
This news comes after the chairman of Ukip leader Nigel Farage's branch, Martyn Heale, was apologising for his 1970s membership of the National Front (NF). Since 2008, the Ukip party constitution has banned people from joining if they have a previous affiliation with the NF, English Defence League (EDL) or British National Party (BNP).