UKIP's South Thanet branch has been left with egg on its face after a social media gaffe of epic proportions.

The branch recently chose party leader Nigel Farage as its prospective parliamentary candidate for the 2015 elections. However, it's fair to say that he will have some hard questions for whoever is in charge of its Twitter account.

The BBC's Daily Politics programme tweeted a picture of a box with blue and red balls as Giles Dilnot involved people in a simple opinion poll: if they thought Nigel Farage had what it took to be prime minister they could drop a ball in the appropriate section.

However, South Thanet UKIP tweeted: "Perfect place to hold vote in front of a mosque in London. The BBC's random means selective."

Unfortunately, the "mosque" was in fact Westminster Cathedral, the iconic Roman Catholic building in the heart of London. Dilnot tweeted: "You are SO wrong you might be embarrassed by that."

Many UKIP members are unenthusiastic about the presence of large numbers of Muslims in the country and make a point of referring to Britain as a "Christian nation".

Westminster Cathedral is a striking building in the Byzantine style of architecture, which might have confused UKIP supporters who have been on holiday to Turkey, where it originated.