Comments by a UK Independence Party candidate in Croydon have been condemned as “inflammatory” by gay rights charity Stonewall.
Winston McKenzie, a candidate for the party in the Croydon North constituency, is reported to have told a reporter for local newspaper the Croydon Advertiser:
“If you couldn’t look after your child and you had to put them up for adoption, would you honestly want your child to be adopted by a gay couple? Would you seriously want that or a heterosexual family? Which would be more healthy for the child? A caring loving home is a heterosexual or single family. I don’t believe [a gay couple] is healthy for a child.”
Writing on Twitter, Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill said the “…inflammatory comments in Croydon North helpful clarify” the UKIP “position on gay people”
Mr Summerskill also told Pink News: “These 19th-century views are not acceptable in the 21st century,”
Mr McKenzie is a former boxer and the UKIP spokesman for culture, media and sport.
McKenzie’s comments come just days after UKIP made national headlines when foster children were removed from a South Yorkshire because their parents were members of the party.
