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| UKIP suspends councillor who blamed flooding on gay marriage | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| UKIP has suspended an Oxfordshire councillor after he blamed recent flooding on the government's decision to legalise gay marriage. | |
| In a letter to his local paper, David Silvester said he had warned David Cameron the legislation would result in "disaster". | |
| He said the prime minister had acted "arrogantly against the Gospel". | |
| Earlier, UKIP said Mr Silvester's views were "not the party's" but defended his right to state his opinions. | |
| But a spokesman has now confirmed he has been suspended. | |
| 'Extremist, barmy or nasty' | |
| The councillor had reportedly defied a request not to do interviews about his beliefs following his initial claims. | |
| The move came as party leader Nigel Farage told the Sun on Sunday that "about five" of the 13 MEPs elected for UKIP in 2009 would not stand again. | |
| "Some have been pushed and some have jumped," he explained. | |
| "Politics needs people with personality and backgrounds and they will all have one or two flaws. | |
| "I have my own red lines on this. That is real extremism and nastiness." | |
| UKIP planned to vet all 1,818 candidates to ensure it didn't have "extremist, barmy or nasty" views, the Sun on Sunday reported. | |
| Mr Silvester, from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, defected to UKIP from the Conservatives in protest at David Cameron's support for same-sex unions. | |
| 'Sluts' jibe | |
| In the letter to the Henley Standard he wrote: "The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a Christian nation that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronation oath) will be beset by natural disasters such as storms, disease, pestilence and war." | |
| He added: "I wrote to David Cameron in April 2012 to warn him that disasters would accompany the passage of his same-sex marriage bill. | |
| "But he went ahead despite a 600,000-signature petition by concerned Christians and more than half of his own parliamentary party saying that he should not do so. | |
| "It is his fault that large swathes of the nation have been afflicted by storms and floods." | |
| He went on to say that no man, however powerful "can mess with Almighty God with impunity and get away with it". | |
| A group representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender members of UKIP said: "We are pleased to learn of the suspension of Cllr Silvester. | |
| "His comments did not only defy logic but they were insulting and have brought the party into disrepute." | |
| In September, MEP Godfrey Bloom quit the UKIP group in the European parliament after joking that a group of UKIP women who did not clean behind their fridges were "sluts". | |
| He had previously faced criticism for referring to countries receiving government aid as "Bongo Bongo Land". |