Nigel Farage has suggested that UKIP would abolish most of the laws banning prejudice on the grounds of race or nationality.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips, the former equality and human rights commissioner, the UKIP leader said: "I would argue that the law does need changing, and that if an employer wishes to choose, or you can use the word 'discriminate' if you want to, but wishes to choose to employ a British-born person, they should be allowed to do so."
When asked about which specific anti-discrimination laws he would abolish, Farage said: "Much of it." And he added that his party would do away with laws against race discrimination, arguing that UKIP is "colour-blind".
The interview was conducted for a Channel 4 documentary, Things We Won't Say About Race That Are True, to be broadcast next Thursday.
His comments have already drawn criticism from other party leaders. Labour leader Ed Miliband said: "Farage's comments are wrong, divisive, and dangerous."
I think Nigel Farage's comments today are wrong, divisive and dangerous. The laws we have on equality represent our values as a country.
A spokesperson for the prime minister said the remarks were "deeply concerning".
.@David_Cameron The people the law doesn't protect are British workers, black or white. Disturbing, though unsurprising, that u don't care.
Sadiq Khan, the shadow justice secretary, said Farage's comments belonged to a previous era.
"This is one of the most shocking things I have ever heard from a mainstream politician and demonstrates breathtaking ignorance," he said.
"We have made huge progress on tackling racial inequality and discrimination in this country, partly because of Labour's strong anti-discrimination laws, but things are still far from perfect.
"When my parents moved to London they frequently saw signs saying 'no blacks, no dogs, no Irish'. What UKIP is suggesting would take us back to those days."
On Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Farage defended his comments and said: "I didn't mention race at all. There was no part of that interview which I ever said it at all."
The transcript of the interview reveals that Farage did indeed use the word "race", but only when he said his children would not consider racial discrimination still to be an issue in the UK.
He explained that he was attempting to focus on nationality, and suggested that Britons are missing out on jobs in place of others from the EU.
He said: "I think the situation that we now have, where an employer is not allowed to choose between a British-born person and somebody from Poland, is a ludicrous state of affairs."
Farage provoked more fury by claiming that Britons were increasingly concerned about immigration because of some Muslims in the UK.
He expanded on this statement, and said there are some Muslims in the UK who are forming a "fifth column living within our country, who hate us and want to kill us".
The UKIP leader went on to describe British Muslims as a "migrant group" and said many "fundamentally [want] to change who we are and what we are."
A spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella body for Muslim organisations in the UK, said: "Mr Farage suggests that there are some Muslims in this country who are fifth columnists, yet poll after poll suggests that Muslims feel proud to be British and identify themselves strongly with this country.
"Yes there are people out there who want to kill us – Muslims too are often victims. But the best way to defy the terrorists is to celebrate the higher virtues of our plural, multicultural society that is welcoming of all faiths and none."