UKIP suspends councillor over divisive views

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) has suspended a councillor in Oxfordshire after he blamed the country’s recent flooding on the government’s decision to legalize gay marriage.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said Sunday that Councillor David Silvester was suspended after he continued to give interviews “promoting his own controversial views.”

The decision came after Silvester wrote in a recent letter to his local newspaper, saying he had warned Prime Minster David Cameron in 2012 that changing marriage laws would result in “disaster.”

“It is his (Cameron) fault that large swathes of the nation have been afflicted by storms and floods,” the letter read.

Silvester defected from the Conservatives in protest at Cameron’s support for same-sex marriages.

The suspension came as Farage told the British paper The Sun that all of UKIP’s 1,818 candidates running in elections would be vetted to ensure the party does not have “extremist, barmy or nasty” views.

According to a poll published on Sunday, Britons view the UK Independence Party (UKIP) as more favorably than the country’s three main political parties.

The ComRes opinion poll conducted Sunday for The Independent and The Sunday Mirror, 27 percent of Britons said they felt most “favorable” towards UKIP, compared with 26, 25 and 14 percent towards Labor, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats respectively.

UKIP, which wants Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) and plans to reduce the inflow of immigrants to the country, managed to achieve its best result in local elections in England and Wales in May 2013.