The UK Independence Party has disqualified a candidate from standing in an election because he is registered disabled, it was claimed today.

Jack Biggs said he had been told by the Euro-sceptic party that he could not be selected as a full candidate for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council this May after a double-knee replacement.

Instead, the party told him he could only be a "paper candidate", a phrase often used to refer to a token candidate not expected to win.

Vicki Sharp, the chairman of the UKIP South Devon constituency association, allegedly wrote in a letter in response to Mr Biggs' application which stated: "Unfortunately, I have to tell you that, in view of your being registered disabled you will not be able to stand as a full candidate for UKIP."

She added that activists would help him canvass as a "paper candidate".

Mr Biggs, 65, has described UKIP's actions as "illegal" but the party hit back by claiming the pensioner is trying to "blackmail" them in a bid to try to stop it putting up a candidate against his daughter, who is a sitting independent councillor in the area.

The claims emerged on the day UKIP was forced to suspend Tom Wise, an MEP who represents the East of England, for financial irregularities.

Speaking to Sky News today, Mr Biggs said he was capable of being an effective representative despite his disability.

"I have been a councillor before. I know how to do the job," Mr Biggs said.

"It is illegal to use that [the disability] as an excuse."

He added that he would stand at the next election as an independent instead. "I am not going to stand for UKIP anymore, that's for sure. They are going nowhere," he added.

However Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, retorted that Mr Biggs simply "couldn't do the job" of a full candidate.

"I could run down the street but I couldn’t make an Olympic athlete. This man couldn’t do the job, just as other people can’t do it because they are busy," he said.

"We are not discriminating against anybody, we are being used here as an object of political blackmail."

Mr Farage added: "He can stand as a candidate for UKIP, she made that perfectly clear, as a paper candidate, we’ll give him some help.

"But he could not be a mainline candidate if he physically could not do the job.

"We are thin on the ground in Dorset and our priority candidates who we are trying to give some backing to, some financial backing and all the rest of it, our priority candidates have to be able to do the job."

Mr Farage said UKIP had received correspondence from Mr Biggs in which he threatened to go to the press unless Ukip agreed not to stand against his daughter in the elections.

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