At the UKIP party conference, Kelly Malone – a former celebrity Big Brother contestant and Boxing promoter, then know as Frank Malone – gave a prominent speech before the UKIP faithful. With a booming cockney accent growling from beneath a neat blond bob, she discussed her transition to a woman, declared the party ‘open to everyone’ and apologised for historic homophobic remarks: she received a standing ovation.

Just three days prior, however, UKIP’s LGBT group chair Tom Booker resigned, claiming he has concerns that the party’s “leadership” was failing to “set a gay-friendly tone,” and that he, “simply couldn’t defend the party any more.”

UKIP actively stands against political correctness, of course, but all too often one of their no-body candidates or councillors will make overly bigoted remarks. “The people that make foolish comments like ‘gay marriage caused floods’ are a laughing stock and are reprimanded by the leadership” said UKIP’s Nathan Garbutt. “Look, I was elected by UKIP members as the Deputy Chairman of UKIP Yorkshire and selected as PPC for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford – all as an openly gay man! – would a bunch of homophobes support me?”

You can count on such ‘gaffs’ receiving heavy coverage in the media, but seldom do they actually damage the party much in the polls. The offending individual is indeed routinely dismissed, and the whole thing is brush off as ‘not reflective of the party.’ Which, according to recent evidence, might be the case – 54 per cent of UKIP supporters were recently found to support gay marriage. That’s just seven per cent behind the Tories (despite that fact that many social conservative Tories jumped ship to UKIP in opposition to gay marriage.)

Nigel Farage clarified in March last year that UKIP would not overturn the gay marriage bill, but did admit a few days later that it “opened a whole can of worms” – seemingly alluding to the obvious tension in the party between social conservatives and the LGBT cause that is brought into focus by the bill. “The point is same-sex-marriage is now legal in this country, UKIP won’t repeal it so let’s move on,” says Garbutt.

In France, Marine Le Pen has show in recent years that how the radical right can successfully win the gay community over. Since taking control of the party in 2011 she has refused to attend marches against gay marriage has committed to a policy of ‘de-diabolisation’ (detoxification). According to recent polls, her party has gained 5 points amongst gay electors and 7 points amongst bisexuals since April 2012, just before the Presidential Elections. In Paris now, 26 per cent of homosexuals support her, compared with just 16 per cent of hetero-sexuals.

Le Pen has been selling the party as the only one able to defend secularism and democracy against what she calls ‘Islamisation’ – particularly in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Indeed a widely recognised force behind the surge in gay support is a string of violent homophobic attacks and murders in France. The Gay and Muslim communities have become polarised, and there is a growing sense among homosexuals that they are under threat from religiously motivated hatred.

This is not an exclusively French phenomenon. The Metropolitan Police, the only force that records such numbers, reports that per head in London gay people and Jews are about four times more likely to become victims of hate crime than Muslims. Farage is known to be a fan of Le Pen, and he could learn from her success here. “Homophobia, regardless of religion, is an issue that does need to be challenged, [and] UKIP should lead that debate,” said Garbutt (whilst also stressing he believe UKIP and the Front National to be different creatures). But nevertheless, he added “I am fully aware UKIP does have a long way to go to improve our image with the LGBT community”.

“We now have Flo Lewis, a strong women and activist leading LGBT UKIP, it is the start of an exciting new chapter,” he says. Farage, it seems, could quite plausibly seize the mood on show at the conference and begin to create the ‘gay friendly atmosphere’ that Mr. Booker claimed the ‘leadership’ was failing to nurture. In doing so, he may be able to replicate the gay support that Le Pen has shown the right can attract in Europe today.