The right-wing UK Independence Party has suspended one of its local councillors who has blamed recent flooding in Britain on the government's decision to legalise gay marriage.
David Silvester, a devout Christian, said the floods were God's retribution for a Christian nation abandoning its faith.
Mr Silvester first put forward his views about the link between recent storms and same-sex marriage in a letter to his local newspaper, saying a Christian nation that abandoned its faith would be beset by natural disasters, such as storms, disease, pestilence and war, the BBC reports.
Mr Silvester was told not to make any more public statements about the issue, but on Sunday repeated his opinions in BBC radio interview. The UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he was entitled to his "strong Baptist view of the world", but had defied a request not to do further media interviews. "So we suspended him, quite rightly."
