AN MEP found himself in hot waters this weekend after advising young Ukip members to copy Adolf Hitler, describing the dictator as “magnetic,” writes Joana Ramiro.

According to the Mail on Sunday, West Midlands representative Bill Etheridge praised the Nazi leader at this year’s Young Independence Conference in Birmingham.

Mr Etheridge — who was later defended by his party — endorsed Hitler’s public speaking style, arguing that “when he started speaking [people] were hanging on his every word.”

“Look back to the most magnetic and forceful public speaker possibly in history,” he advised prospective party candidates.

Labour MP Mike Gapes found the Ukip politician’s speech “simply unbelievable.”

“I thought nothing could surprise me any more but this just goes to show that Farage has completely failed to clean up his party,” he said.

Unite Against Fascism (UAF) joint secretary Weyman Bennett told the Star that “there has been a clear link of fascists and racists joining Ukip and Ukip have not got a robust system for dealing with this.”

UAF said it severely condemned any positive association with Adolf Hitler.

In response, Ukip opted to denounce the Mail on Sunday for its “truly disgusting” coverage of the event.

A party spokesman said that the Mail “as a Tory paper is terrified by the rise of Ukip and apparently will stoop to nothing to attack the party.”

However, in Mr Bennett’s opinion: “There is a real danger, although we do not consider Ukip to be fascist, that their politics will give a boost to fascist politics.”