Verbal altercations on the doorstep have gone hand-in-hand with election campaigning since the concept was conceived

While in previous years candidates and supporters have shouldered questionable comments about their national party leaders – especially if that leader happens to be Prime Minister – this year they have reported much more personal abuse.

And far too much of that abuse has shifted from loud opinion to vile racism – and even into physical assault.

Steve Pritchard, Labour’s election agent and former borough councillor, said that an attack on one candidate has been reported to Sussex Police, while the sheer bile spewed from the mouths of some residents had caused the party ‘a lot of distress’.

Some of the candidates and canvassers have been so floored by the abuse they have received both in person and online that they have asked to remain anonymous for fear of further such assaults.

One woman said it was appalling that so many people were no longer embarrassed to use words of racial abuse.

She added: “[It’s] worse than anything I have known in over 35 years of door knocking in Crawley. I honestly can’t remember hearing any open, in-your-face racism in the past. There were hints but nothing so overt.

“The level of aggression is also way up. In 35 years I can remember, and count on the fingers of one hand, the number of times I found it threatening – now that is not so uncommon.”

Another reported that she had been called ‘a terrorist’, accused of coming to the country ‘on a dinghy’, and told that ‘brown faces shouldn’t be in councils or Parliament’.

As a child of the 1980s, Mr Pritchard was fortunate enough to have missed the years when open, casual racism was tolerated or waved away.

He said: “I wasn’t naive enough to think the racists had vanished – we were sweeping it under the carpet. But it’s back now in full force.”