A supporter of Ukip in Newark – where MEP Roger Helmer is standing in next week’s crucial by-election, despite a very prominent row over homophobia – has claimed that same-sex marriage is “appalling” and will lead to people “marrying pigs”.
Ukip super fan David Donegan, owner of the Saracens Head hotel in Southwell, told the Guardian: “Civil partnership is absolutely fine, but gay marriage is appalling nonsense.
"The next thing they will be saying is we should be marrying pigs.”
The comments follow Ukip leader Nigel Farage claiming that the media only cares about his party comparing homosexuality to bestiality – after former Ukip Chairwoman Julia Gasper claimed that some gay people prefer sex with animals.
Newark is in the large East Midlands constituency for European parliamentary elections, in which Ukip topped the poll with 32.9%, ahead of the Tories on 25.9%.
Helmer, who has represented the East Midlands in the European Parliament for 15 years, was "overwhelmingly" endorsed by the Newark constituency association at a hustings meeting earlier this month before being backed by Ukip's National Executive Committee.
A pick of Helmer's very best/most horrific comments include a very confusing analogy about gay people and Earl Grey Tea:
… [some people find homosexuality] distasteful if not viscerally repugnant... Different people may have different tastes. You may tell me that you don’t like Earl Grey tea. That may be a minority view but you are entitled not to like it if you don’t like it.
While, in a less subtle attack about homosexuality, he said:
Being gay is "abnormal and undesirable" and not to be "celebrated"
And, it wouldn't be a good old rant about gays without a mention of incest would it?
"If two men can be married, why not three men? Or two men and a woman?... Why not a commune? If two men have a right to marry, how can we deny the same right to two siblings? Are we to authorise incest?"
Helmer even hates seals. Yes, seals.
But Mr Donegan argued Ukip are "leading a peasants’ revolt."
"They will ransack the village, but will probably be stopped at the city gates," he told The Guardian.
"Hopefully that will shake up the Westminster establishment which needs a kick up the backside.”
In the wake of the Ukip European Elections "Earthquake," Helmer commented that the public is "sending a hugely powerful message to the political classes" and said he "relishes the opportunity" of beating the Tories on Thursday 5th June.
Farage had already attempted to defend Helmer from accusations of homophobia, claiming that “most” over-70s feel uncomfortable about gays.
He said: “Roger Helmer is fighting this by-election for us; he’s somebody of 70 years of age who grew up with a strong Christian Bible background; he grew up in an age when homosexuality was actually imprisonable, and he had a certain set of views which he maintained for many years which he now says he accepts the world’s moved on and he’s relaxed about.
“As I say, when Roger grew up and, indeed, when he was an adult, homosexuality was illegal in this country, and he held that view for some period of time.
“And actually, if we asked the 70s and over in this country how they felt about it, most of them still feel uncomfortable.”