Nigel Farage’s Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group has recruited an MEP from the Congress of the New Right, whose leader, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, uses racial slurs and questions the Holocaust.
In a recent interview with the JC, Korwin-Mikke said that Jews’ efforts to win back property stolen during the Second World War often amounted to a “Holocaust industry”.
Korwin-Mikke said: “If somebody tries to get property which doesn’t belong directly to him, he should not get it. We are against returning property that belonged to one Jew to another Jew. It is a Holocaust industry.”
The 71-year-old MEP also claimed that the only Jews left in Poland were “Jewish communists”, adding: “Jews are very talented people, and therefore are our worst enemies, because they are talented communists.
“This is why the Poles have a specific image of Jews. They don’t know the real Jews, only the Communists ones who stayed here.”
His colourful character and provocative remarks about the European Parliament, the gay community, Jews and world leaders marked him out as the “bad boy” of Polish politics.
But he surprised everybody. His party gained more than seven per cent of the vote in May's European election, amounting to four seats.
He claimed that he would have seen even more success had it not been for “the state, Catholics, communists, the media attacking me all the way”.
While Korwin-Mikke claimed he was “against any restrictions on minorities”, he explained this by saying: “For us there are no minorities, there are only Polish citizens. We are against special rights for minorities. The same with Jews.”
Korwin-Mikke has detailed his views on Jews in previous interviews published in the Polish media.
In an interview with weekly magazine Najwyzszy Czas in 2008, he said: “[Jews] are so proud of the six million murdered in the Holocaust, that it sometimes seems to me that if Eichmann had objected to sending the Hungarian Jews to the death camps, he could have been accused of antisemitism because it would have decrease the number murdered, which is brought up at every occassion.
“Maybe I am exaggerating a little, but don’t you see the sick carping on the left and right that so many Jews were murdered — even four times more than in reality?
“That the more victims there were, the better?”
A Ukip spokesman said Polish MEP Robert Iwaszkiewicz was the only member of Korwin-Mikke's group who would be joining the European grouping.
"Korwin-Mikke is not a member of our group. Both Ukip and the EFDD group abhors and rejects any scent of antisemitism.
"All groups in the European Parliament have very odd bedfellows. The rules to get speaking time and funding are set by the European Parliament, Ukip."
Shneur Odze, who was Ukip's only strictly Orthodox candidate in May's European elections, said: "We have invited one person to join and not the leader. The man that has joined us said he wanted Hitler dead, he is no closet fascist.
"I understand for some people that this is a difficult pill to swallow, and people do not understand the nuances and intricacies of European politics."
Board of Deputies vice-president Jonathan Arkush said: “The Board is gravely concerned by reports that Ukip may sit in the same parliamentary grouping as a far-right Polish MEP in a bid save its funding.
"Robert Iwaszkiewicz belongs to an extremist party whose leader has a history of Holocaust denial, racist remarks and misogynistic comments.
"For UKIP to choose such a figure as Robert Iwaszkiewicz as a bedfellow, apparently for money, is beyond belief. Nigel Farage now has some very serious questions to answer. He has placed in issue the credibility of Ukip."
