NIGEL Farage has been urged to expel UKIP’s Halesowen and Rowley Regis prospective parliamentary candidate Dean Perks after he revealed he is a big fan of thieves having their hands chopped off.

Mr Perks extolled the virtues of some aspects of Islamic Sharia Law during a speech to UKIP members in Coventry in which he was dispensing advice about the dangers of social media for candidates.

Mr Perks, who earlier this year caused outrage by branding someone “retarded” on Twitter, said: “Sharia law in my opinion it works as a prevention and prevention is better than cure. If you think you are going to get your hand chopped off for pinching something you won't pinch it.

“Now, it's quite straight forward, prevention is better than cure and that's the part of Sharia law I agree with. I aint going to defend myself for it, I do agree with it."

Mr Perks speech in May has been uploaded to YouTube and opponents have seized on his controversial comments.

Veteran Warley MP John Spellar said: “Once again this shows the bizarre sort of candidate that UKIP is attracting.

“People from all communities will be astonished and appalled that Mr Perks want to bring such barbarity into Britain.”

He added: “The real question is how did he ever get to be a candidate in the first place. I challenge Nigel Farage to throw him out immediately.”

However, when reminded of his comments about Sharia Law the budding MP explained he does not believe it will curtail his dream of representing Halesowen and Rowley Regis in the mother of all Parliaments.

He said: “I said well in all honesty I do agree with part but by no means all of Sharia law and that was the exact phrase that I used.

“Somebody kept that to use that against me and he actually said that my political career was finished before it had even started because of that phrase.

“Now I'm sorry but I was that sort of not ashamed of it that I actually retweeted it myself. Because that's my view, that's my opinion.”

Mr Perks has also been targeted by pressure group Hope Not Hate after praising Enoch Powell in a Twitter spat with Gornal Councillor Dave Branwood in February.