UKIP’s candidate for the Mayor of London has said that PinkNews readers aren’t going to like him.

The UK Independence Party selected openly gay Culture spokesperson Peter Whittle to run for Mayor of London last month.

Mr Whittle represented UKIP at the PinkNews Debate earlier this year in front of PinkNews readers – speaking opposite Labour’s Yvette Cooper, Tory Lords leader Baroness Stowell, Green leader Natalie Bennett and new Lib Dem peer Don Foster.

However, speaking to Winq Magazine today, Mr Whittle said he was unsurprised by his poor reception from the audience.

He said: “Well they weren’t going to like me, were they? The irony though was I was the only gay person on the panel and indeed that’s the case with the mayoral candidates this time.

“UKIP has been called homophobic and the rest of it… Well, I’m the candidate for London; I’m openly gay an always have been.”

The candidate will have an uphill battle – UKIP garnered just two percent of the vote in the 2012 Mayoral election.

Mr Whittle also told the mag: “[UKIP] was not against civil partnerships, but gay marriage. That is finished now, that is not an issue any more… It’s the law and that’s that.

“There would not be any reversal now. There are people in UKIP who are anti-gay marriage for all sorts of reasons, but I’m not.”

He added: “There are a lot of gay people in UKIP, but people have this perception – which is aided and abetted by the media to an extent – that somehow we’re raging homophobes.

“Well, I wouldn’t be in a homophobic party. It’s just completely untrue. What can I say? They have chosen me as their candidate.”