A UK Independence Party councillor has claimed that Britain’s recent harsh weather – which saw storms and flooding across the country – are “divine retribution for the government’s decision to legalise gay marriage.”
The claims were made by David Silvester, a former Tory politician who abandoned the Conservative party to join the more extreme Ukip party, following his protest against David Cameron’s support for gay marriage.
Silvester wrote a letter to the Henley Standard, saying: "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.
"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 swaths of the nation have been afflicted by storms and floods.
"He has arrogantly acted against the Gospel that once made Britain 'great' and the lesson surely to be learned is that no man or men, however powerful, can mess with Almighty God with impunity and get away with it for everything a nation does is weighed on the scaled of divine approval or disapproval."
Ukip has distanced itself from the remarks, saying the views expressed by Silvester were “not the party’s beliefs”. The party did not, however, take any stance on the beliefs, with a spokesperson saying: "If the media are expecting Ukip to either condemn or condone someone's personal religious views they will get absolutely no response.
"Whether Jain or Sikh or Buddhist or Sufi or Zoroastrian or Jewish or Muslim or Baptist or Hindu or Catholic or Baha'i or Animist or any other mainstream or minor religion or movement, we are taught as a tolerant society to accept a diversity of ideologies.
"Freedom to individual thought and expression is a central tenet of any open-minded and democratic country. It is quite evident that this is not the party's belief but the councillor's own and he is more than entitled to express independent thought despite whether or not other people may deem it standard or correct.
"That is what makes the United Kingdom such a wonderful, proud, diverse and free country."
