Name David Silvester | Role Politician | |
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UKIP's gay shipping forecast
David Silvester is an English local politician, formerly of the Conservative Party and the UK Independence Party. He is a town councillor for Henley-on-Thames.
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Political career
Silvester worked for Shell and was elected to the town's council after his retirement. Originally a member of the Conservative Party, he joined UKIP in 2013, in protest against Prime Minister David Cameron's support for same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom, which Silvester claimed was in defiance of the Coronation Oath Act 1688.
Controversy
In January 2014, Silvester received national media attention in the United Kingdom after a letter to the Henley Standard in which he said that the floods that hit the UK in 2013 were God's punishment for the introduction of gay marriage. Subsequently, he also said that homosexuality was a "spiritual disease" and should be healed. UKIP suspended him from the party on 19 January 2014. His comments prompted a Facebook campaign by gay activists to send the popular anthem "It's Raining Men" to UK number one.