Ukip youth wing bombards Labour MP Chuka Umunna with emails after he says their voters have no IT skills

Young Independence challenges the MP after he said that some disconnected voters who "cannot send an email" are led to Ukip

Ukip's Young Independence launches email campaign against Labour politician Chuka Umunna (Getty Images)

It’s business as usual this week with a Labour politician provoking the annoyance of Ukip supporters, as its youth wing fights back against suggestions by Chuka Umunna that some of the party’s voters are computer illiterate.

Shadow Business Secretary Mr Umunna yesterday said that disconnected voters who are also unable to perform basic IT tasks are some of those who feel marginalised in society - many of whom, he says, voted Ukip.

Young Independence, the arm of the party that represents those under 30, responded with a rallying cry to all of its members to “help [Chuka] understand why people vote Ukip.”

In a blog appeal entitled “’UKIP voters can’t send emails’, really?” the group entreats its supporters to prove their IT credentials to the Steatham MP directly… via email.

They also took to Twitter to sardonically ask “the rare Ukip members with an email address,” to inundate Mr Umunna with messages, while also launching an #EmailChuka Twitter hashtag to promote the campaign.

Speaking on BBC's The Andrew Marr Show, the Labour politician referenced recent research and said: “One in five people in our economy cannot do the four basics online of sending and receiving an email, browsing the internet, filling in an online form.”

One irate and “offended” young Ukip supporter, Dan Jukes, posted his email to Mr Umunna in full on Twitter.

He said in the message that he has “Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts plus most importantly of course to you, [is] the user of 3 active email addresses.”

He added: “I think it is important for you to know that Nigel Farage has more than 70,000 Twitter followers than yourself, the Ukip’s Facebook page has more likes than Labour (approaching 250,000) and we have the fasted growing Youth Wing in the country.”

Another, Dan Paddock, said that the politician's comments were “disrespectful and distasteful” in an attempt to brand them “as an unintellectual party.”