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Ukip suspends Oxfordshire councillor who blamed floods on legalisation of gay marriage Ukip suspends Oxfordshire councillor David Silvester who blamed floods on David Cameron passing gay marriage bill
(35 minutes later)
A Ukip councillor who blamed the recent floods on the passing of gay marriage laws has been suspended. Ukip has suspended a councillor who blamed the recent floods on the passage of the gay marriage bill, after he continued to give interviews “promoting his own controversial views”.
David Silvester, a councillor for Henley-on-Thames, said that he had warned the Prime Minister of “repercussions” if gay marriage had gone ahead and told BBC Radio Berkshire his daily prayers convinced him the recent flooding was the consequence. David Silvester, a councillor for Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, had written to a local paper claiming the country had been “beset by storms” because of David Cameron’s decision to act “arrogantly against the Gospel” in changing marriage laws.
He said the new law, paving the way for the first gay marriages in Britain this spring, was the latest mistake which would anger God - following on from abortion laws, which he likened to the Holocaust. He was told by the party to stop airing his personal beliefs, yet proceeded to appear live on BBC Radio Berkshire saying he “prayed for gay people to be healed”.
In the radio interview, which followed his initial claims about the link between flooding and gay marriage in a letter to the Henley Standard, Mr Silvester said: “I don't have a problem with gay people. Mr Silvester said the new law, paving the way for the first gay marriages in Britain this spring, was the latest mistake which would anger God - following on from abortion laws, which he likened to the Holocaust.
Ukip councillor blames floods on gay marriage In the radio interview, he said: “I don't have a problem with gay people.
  “I believe as a Christian I should love gay people and, indeed, I do. My prayer for them is they will be healed.
”I believe as a Christian I should love gay people and, indeed, I do. My prayer for them is they will be healed.
“I believe that is what the Apostle Paul said in the New Testament, he said some of you are gay but you have been healed. There is healing for the gay condition and I believe a Christian should long for gay people to be healed and to have normal heterosexual lives.“I believe that is what the Apostle Paul said in the New Testament, he said some of you are gay but you have been healed. There is healing for the gay condition and I believe a Christian should long for gay people to be healed and to have normal heterosexual lives.
”It is nonsense to say it is homophobic. If you love a person enough to want them to be healed and to have a proper family, that is hardly homophobic. “It is nonsense to say it is homophobic. If you love a person enough to want them to be healed and to have a proper family, that is hardly homophobic.
“It is a spiritual disease... it's not what I say, it's what the Bible says.”“It is a spiritual disease... it's not what I say, it's what the Bible says.”
Mr Silvester, who defected from the Tories to Ukip in protest at Mr Cameron’s support for same-sex laws, said he was convinced that there were “repercussions for a nation persisting in what is wrong”, and that he had clear beliefs “there are things that are right and wrong”. Mr Silvester, who defected to Ukip from the Conservative Party, said he was convinced that there were “repercussions for a nation persisting in what is wrong”, and that he had clear beliefs “there are things that are right and wrong”.
“Over the years we have done many things that have caused problems,” he said.“Over the years we have done many things that have caused problems,” he said.
“One, for example, is the abortion laws in which something like six million children, as many as the people killed by the Nazis in the death camps, have been killed as a result of the abortion laws.“One, for example, is the abortion laws in which something like six million children, as many as the people killed by the Nazis in the death camps, have been killed as a result of the abortion laws.
”Now, this is a process. The latest in this process is these homosexual laws and the homosexual marriage.“ “Now, this is a process. The latest in this process is these homosexual laws and the homosexual marriage.”
A Ukip spokesperson defended Mr Silvester's right to voice his opinions, although the views he expressed are “not the party's belief”. Despite supporting Mr Silvester following his initial comments in the Henley Standard, Ukip has now used emergency powers to suspend him.
PA The party’s south east chairman Roger Bird said the councillor had acted “contrary to party requests and continued to court the media”.
“We cannot have any individual using the Ukip banner to promote their controversial personal beliefs which are not shared by the party,” Mr Bird said.
The suspension came as Ukip leader Nigel Farage told the Sun on Sunday he had launched a clear-out to remove from the party anyone with “extremist, nasty or barmy views”.
Mr Farage said all 1,818 candidates running in elections for Ukip would be vetted, while insisting that “of all the candidates we fielded, only about half a dozen have caused us any embarrassment”.
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