Ceredigion councillor Gethin James, who was sacked from the Cabinet for joining Ukip, has hit back at leader Ellen ap Gwynn's comments.

"I have never worked against the interests of Ceredigion or spoken against receiving European grants," he said.

"Quite the contrary I was the cabinet member with responsibility for the coastal path whilst it was under construction and fully support the repatriation of as much of UK tax payers money back to Wales and the UK. People seem to concentrate on the small fountain of money given back to us in grants, instead of the 53 million pounds a day that the UK pay to the EU. Ask yourself If I was to take £10 off you today and then give you back £6 tomorrow and tell you what you must spend it on, would you give me another £10 every day without question? The leaders comments are just veiled bigotry as they fear the increased support for Ukip. If Plaid Cymru achieve their goal of an Independent Wales, they would then grovel to the EU for membership and we will all be using the Euro as our currency. All I'm doing is standing up against the weight of bureaucracy heaped upon us by the EU and asking why are we paying in so much every day?"