LONDON: A local councillor for the anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) has blamed recent storms and floods across Britain on the government's decision to legalise gay marriage, it emerged on Saturday.
David Silvester, who defected from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party in protest at the move to allow same-sex couples to marry, made the claim in a letter to his local newspaper.
"I wrote to David Cameron in April 2012 to warn him that disasters would accompany the passage of his same-sex marriage bill," wrote Silvester, an elected member of the town council in Henley-on-Thames, west of London.
He added: "It is his (Cameron's) fault that large swathes 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 scale of divine approval or disapproval."
The Conservative member of parliament for Henley, John Howell, said the comments were "not the sort of thing that he should have written in today's age" and said Silvester needed to "consider his position".
A UKIP spokeswoman said Silvester's views were "not the party's belief" but said he was entitled to state his opinions.
Cameron pushed through the gay marriage law last year against fierce opposition within his Conservative party, and the first weddings are expected to take place in March.
In a concession to opposition from the established Churches of England and Wales, however, those institutions are banned from conducting ceremonies.
UKIP prides itself on not bowing to what it terms "political correctness" on social issues and is steadily building support with its anti-immigration and anti-EU message.
It has no MPs but is the third largest party in the opinion polls, with about 12 percent of support, and is expected to do well in May's European Parliament elections.
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