The UKIP Councillor who blamed Britain's recent spell of bad weather on gay marriage has said he he won't quit in an equally bizarre rant.
David Silvester has defended his comments in another letter to his local paper and said he has no intention of standing down – quoting the Queen.
“The Conservatives are known as the party of the Queen. The Queen in her coronation oath promised to only to pass those laws that are consistent with the Christian gospel," Mr Silvester argued.
In what appears to be a convoluted biblical reference, he added: "There is a command to love all men and I hope I love all men but we are also taught to love the person but hate the sin.”
Mr Silvester has previously claimed he can heal gay people with religion and argued acts like same-sex marriage are to blame for storms, disease, pestilence and war.
A UKIP spokesman said the party had been left with no choice but to suspend him following his continual comments.
But the councillor said he still has not been informed personally by the party about his standing and that until he is, he will continue to be a "fully paid-up member of the party, to whom I recently made a £170 party donation."
“As regards resigning as a town councillor, I was elected for a four-year term of office, and I have every intention of continuing to work hard for the people of Henley in that capacity. If UKIP no longer require my services, my intention will be to serve as an independent.”
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Responding to Mr Silvester's initial claims about gay people and their apparent apocalyptic powers, UKIP leader Nigel Farage told the BBC’s World at One programme “people are entitled to have religious opinions and I’ve always been pretty liberal about that.”
“I don’t know Mr Silvester but I understand that he is a practicing Baptist, that he’s very strongly opposed to gay marriage and I understand and respect that. People should have the right to hold that view.
“However, linking it in with the bad weather is heading towards the barmy edge”.
Mr Silvester's suspension came as Mr Farage announced a purge of "extremist, nasty or barmy" views from the party ahead of the polls.
When challenged if he had shown weak leadership in not disciplining Mr Silvester sooner, Mr Farage replied: “The truth of the story is that he made those comments, I was less than happy with them, I’ve sent him a message to say ‘look. Don’t agree with you, I think this is really rather silly.”
The UKIP leader told Mr Silvester to “please desist” in order to avoid bring the party into “disrepute”. But the councillor “went on repeating it”.