A UKIP election candidate has spoken out after two of the party’s placards in West Oxfordshire were kicked over and vandalised.

Simon Strutt, the party’s candidate for Witney, said it was “completely unacceptable” that placards put up earlier this week next to the A40 near Witney and near Duckington had been vandalised.

Mr Strutt said: “We get very angry about it because it’s supposed to be a developed democracy but this makes it feel like it’s an underdeveloped democracy.”

Mr Strutt said there was no clear evidence whether it was the work of vandals or political opponents.

He said the party has suffered from similar problems in previous elections.

Also this week a Conservative placard near the A40 at the Eynsham roundabout was defaced with the words David Cameron being changed to David Camoron.

Natasha Whitmill, a spokeswoman for West Oxfordshire Conservative Association said: “We have had one large poster defaced at the Eynsham roundabout where it looks like the vandal stood on the landowner’s fence to chainsaw through the poster.”

All three incidents are being investigated by Thames Valley Police.