THE chairman of Ukip in Swindon says he does not approve of the party’s suspended former candidate Martin Costello’s posts appearing on the group’s local Facebook page.

The right-wing campaigners posts have been shared on the UK Independence Party’s page – even though he was suspended from the political group for his part in a fracas at a London socialist bookshop. He  posts have been shared twice this month, once on August 9 and 12.

Lincoln Williams, chairman of Swindon Ukip, said: “I don’t approve of this.

“I gave advice to Mr Costello to stop being active online while under investigation.

“He has no endorsements from the local branch of the party.”

Mr Williams added: “The ruling for Ukip remains the same as to suspension under review.”

Swindon resident Gavin Perry contacted the administrator of the Ukip Swindon page to report that there was still content being published by the suspended member.

They initially responded to Gavin claiming that the posts were not from Mr Costello.

Gavin said: “They say it isn’t Martin, but the posts clearly originate with him on his Martin Costello Journalist Facebook page.

“By continuing to post content generated by Martin on the Swindon Ukip Facebook page they are condoning his actions in the bookshop, embarrassing themselves as an organisation still further.”

Gavin claims that Swindon Ukip are still showing a picture of Martin with another suspended member together at the top of the page as a recruiting incentive – which the Adver can confirm is at the top of the social media site.

Mr Costello was involved in an incident at a London bookshop earlier this month.

Police were called to Bookmarks in Bloomsbury, central London, following protesters storming the shop, as seen on footage from the incident which captured him at the scene.

He came fourth in a five-candidate field in South Swindon at last year’s general election with 1,291 votes, 2.5 per cent of votes cast.

Mr Costello was contacted by the Adver but did not want to comment.

CORRECTION

In the first version of this article we said the former Ukip candidate Martin Costello had been posting on the local party’s Facebook site while suspended from the party.

In fact, he had not been posting, his posts had been shared on to the page. We apologise for this error and are happy to make this clarification.