The UK Independence Party have suspended a councillor who claimed recent floods were the result of the Government's decision to legalise gay marriage.
David Silvester claimed the country had been "beset by storms" since the passage of the new law on gay marriage because David Cameron had acted "arrogantly against the Gospel".
He was suspended by the party after defying a request not to do further interviews on his beliefs following his initial claims made in a letter to a local newspaper.
The move came as leader Nigel Farage launched a clearout of "extremist, nasty or barmy" views from the party ahead of polls in May.
Henley-on-Thames councillor Mr Silvester said 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.
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.
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.
"I believe as a Christian I should love gay people and indeed, I do. My prayer for them is they will be healed."
The party, which initially supported him after his letter to the Henley Standard, has used emergency powers to suspend him.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article