Anger as Dudley voters are labelled racist by Labour activist

Hope Not Hate activist John Page said the only way the party could win back voters who had turned to UKIP was to reach out to people with racist beliefs.

He cited Dudley among four towns in the UK where people have 'adopted racist views and narratives' and considered refugees to be 'a problem'.

Mr Page's comments have sparked fury across the borough, and have been described as 'nonsensical', 'offensive' and 'garbage' by politicians in the town.

Addressing a meeting at a fringe event at Labour's conference in Liverpool, last week, Mr Page said: "If we want to win in these communities and I'm thinking about places like Rotherham, like Dudley, like Merthyr Tydfil, like Thurrock, we need to start off with a discussion with people who hold racist views.

"It's no good saying to ourselves we are going to go out and find the people who are anti-racist and we are going to have a little meeting or a little rally or put up a banner saying 'refugees welcome here' because in some of these communities refugees are not welcome, in fact, refugees are held to be the problem."

He added: "We cannot deal with the racism that is growing in some of these communities by myth-busting by being smarter than people, by trumping them with facts, we have to do something very different."

Many Labour supporters criticised the party during the EU referendum for failing to address the issue of immigration.

The Leave vote in Dudley was one of the country's highest, with every council ward voting for Brexit in a borough-wide total of 68 per cent.

Dudley South Conservative MP Mike Wood said he is planning to meet with Hope Not Hate in the next few weeks to 'set them straight' over Mr Page's 'nonsensical' comments.

Ian Austin, Labour's MP for Dudley North, said: "Community relations in Dudley are good and it is wrong to dismiss people as racist.

"My approach has been to listen to knock on people's doors, listen to their concerns and come up with fair and reasonable answers."

UKIP MEP and Dudley councillor Bill Etheridge said: "This garbage being spouted at this Labour conference shows they have not only lost touch with working class voters but that they despise them."

Mr Page told the Express & Star: "I am not classifying everyone in Dudley as racist.

"But in plenty of places across the country racial divisions have been stirred up due to a number of problems, such as a lack of jobs and homes not being up to standard.

"Dudley is a place where that has happened."