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| Henley-on-Thames councillor David Silvester expelled from UKIP | Henley-on-Thames councillor David Silvester expelled from UKIP |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A UKIP councillor who blamed recent storms and flooding on the legalisation of gay marriage has been expelled from the party. | A UKIP councillor who blamed recent storms and flooding on the legalisation of gay marriage has been expelled from the party. |
| Town councillor David Silvester, from Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, was suspended by the party on 19 January. | Town councillor David Silvester, from Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, was suspended by the party on 19 January. |
| Mr Silvester made his comments in a letter to his local newspaper, the Henley Standard. | Mr Silvester made his comments in a letter to his local newspaper, the Henley Standard. |
| Henley-on-Thames Town Council will hold a meeting later to discuss the fallout around his comments. | Henley-on-Thames Town Council will hold a meeting later to discuss the fallout around his comments. |
| An online petition demanding Mr Silvester's resignation had attracted more than 24,000 signatures. | |
| His local authority, Henley town council, said it was powerless to force him to step down, despite a number of complaints. | |
| The online petition also asked UKIP to suspend him permanently. | |
| 'Disease, pestilence and war' | |
| Last month, Mr Silvester's house was targeted by protesters, who threw eggs at the property and attached a "rainbow banner" to the wall. | |
| 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 no man, however powerful, "can mess with Almighty God with impunity and get away with it". | |
| Previously, UKIP said Mr Silvester's views were "not the party's belief" but defended his right to state his opinions. | |
| Mr Silvester defected to UKIP from the Conservatives in protest at David Cameron's support for same-sex unions. |