A second European election candidate from Change UK has resigned within 24 hours over offensive social media posts.
The party confirmed today that Joseph Russo, who was revealed by the pro-European party as the lead candidate in Scotland, will no longer stand.
A Twitter post from his account said: “Black women scare me. I put this down to be chased through Amsterdam by a crazy black wh***”.
A number of offensive tweets between 2010 and 2013 were unearthed on his account.
In 2012, a post referred to the arrest of former pop start Gary Glitter for historic child sex offences, saying it "smacked of the police targeting low hanging fruit".
Glitter was found guilt of attempted rape, indecent assault and having sex with a child under the age of 13 in 2015.
Another post on his account said: “I wonder if there’s a c***/anchovy correlation. One smells like the other.”
In other comments, where the full context is unclear, an unknown American woman was described as a "b****", with the post adding: “I’d burn her as a yule log.”
It follows the resignation of businessman Ali Sadjady, who stepped down after it emerged he tweeted in 2017: “When I hear that 70% of pick pockets caught on the London Underground are Romanian it kind of makes me want Brexit.”
Mr Russo deleted his Twitter account on Wednesday morning after users on social media flagged up his old posts.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Change UK said: "We have been made aware of several offensive Twitter posts. We have discussed this with Joseph Russo and it has been agreed that he will stand down and is no longer on our list of candidates."
He would have been in his late 20s when he made the remarks which date from 2010-2013.
The Independent Group has already faced backlash and accusation of racism since its inception earlier this year.
One of its MPs Angela Smith caused uproar when she described people from ethnic minorities as having a “funny tinge” in a discussion about racism on live TV.
