Labour accused Nigel Farage yesterday of “sinking to a new low” after he recruited a far-right Polish MEP to help maintain Ukip’s lucrative EU parliamentary group.

Polish Congress of the New Right Party MEP Robert Iwaszkiewicz came to the rescue of the Ukip-led Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group which faced collapse last week following the defection of Latvian Iveta Grigule.

Labour MEP Glenis Willmott said that the views of Mr Iwaszkiewicz, who recently told reporters that men hitting their wives could “help them come back down to Earth,” and his party were “sickening.”

“For all the facade of the rosy-cheeked, jovial pinstripe, these developments highlight once again the dark heart of Ukip and the cynicism of Nigel Farage,” said Ms Willmott.

French National Front leader Marine le Pen reportedly ruled out an alliance with the Congress of the New Right because it is too extreme.

But that didn’t prevent swaggering Mr Farage from seizing the chance to access a reported €80,000 in public funding for each of his 24 MEPs — cash that would not have been available if they could not maintain group status.

The Congress’s Thatcher-worshipping leader Janusz Korwin-Mikke has reportedly argued that Hitler was not aware of the Holocaust and launched a tirade in the European Parliament where he declared: “We must destroy the minimum wage and we must destroy the power of trade unions.”

Mr Iwaszkiewicz’s recruitment is the second “sickening” act linked to Ukip in the space of 24 hours.

BBC Asian Network DJ Nihal told the Newsnight programme on Monday night that the anti-immigrant calypso recorded by washed-up radio presenter Mike Read in a fake Caribbean accent had “made his ears vomit.”

But Ukip urged its supporters to go out and get the “celebrity” member’s song to number one.