UKIP members ‘laughed’ during a raid by immigration officers on a Bournemouth curry house during their annual conference, it has been claimed.

Home Office officials were at the Indian Ocean restaurant as a Ukip campaign team arrived for dinner on Friday.

Leadership runner-up Lisa Duffy had gone with her team, after finding out she lost her bid to replace Nigel Farage as Ukip leader, when a group of border officers emerged from the kitchen of the restaurant at West Cliff Road.

The restaurant’s owner Meedi Vahdati claimed the group laughed at the situation.

He denied accounts by Ms Duffy’s spokesman Jay Beecher that one of the chefs had fled the restaurant.

“I don’t know who he is and why he says this but it’s not acceptable,” Mr Bahdati said.

“I am not happy about Ukip.

“There was pressure on the restaurant,” he added. “There was pressure on the police and immigration to do their job. Turning it into something laughable – that’s not very good. The staff are very unhappy.”

He said the chef didn’t run and was escorted outside by an official to his lodgings upstairs to fetch ID documents.

“People got frightened and they wanted to prove they were OK,” he said. “I don’t think it was a very nice comment – for people to laugh at you.

“Ukip’s response has been really frustrating.”

Speaking of the raid, Mr Vahdati added: “Obviously they are doing their job and I understand that. We have no illegal immigrants – that has been verified.”

Mr Beecher stuck to his guns when contacted by the Daily Echo and said he saw the chef running from officers.

“The fact of the matter was the chef was taken outside and did make a run for it. He was chased after by immigration officers,” he said.

When asked why Ukip members laughed, Mr Beecher responded: “We aren’t undermining the situation. You have to see the funny side of things. Politics can be such a serious affair at times.

“Although it’s easy to feel sorry for people who have been arrested, I don’t sympathise.”

Informed by the Daily Echo that no arrests were made, Mr Beecher said: “They must have had suspicions that the restaurant was harbouring illegal immigrants.

“Whether they were arrested or not, that’s not for me to judge.”

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NIGEL Farage has insisted he kept his underwear on during a late-night skinny dipping session by Bournemouth Pier.

The former Ukip leader claims not to have been fully nude when he and financial backer Arron Banks had gone into the sea following a drinking session on Thursday evening celebrating his final conference as UKIP leader.

The MEP, who has been replaced as leader by Diane James, said he went into the sea because it was “warm and humid”.

Mr Farage rejected Mr Banks’s claims the pair were naked in what seemed an “amazingly good idea” at the time.

“I’m not saying we should recommend people chuck themselves into the sea all around the place but I can assure you it’s not the first time I’ve done such a thing and I intend to do it again,” he told listeners to LBC.

Mr Banks had said on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions: “I can tell you that he’s demob happy because we had a dinner last night.

“We had a few drinks, it was late at night and we went skinny dipping off the Bournemouth pier.

“So if ever a man was about to leave British politics – that’s it.”