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A UKIP candidate who suggested homosexuality is abnormal has been dropped by the party.

Steve Mills had been the UK Independence Party Candidate for Wigan’s Astley Mosley Common ward in local council elections two months ago, coming last between the Tories and Labour.

Mr Mills had remained a local UKIP spokesperson despite the loss – but he attracted the ire of locals this month with a Facebook post about local sex education provisions.

The UKIP candidate had written: “Any resident of Astley or Mosley Common who needs help defending themselves against Wigan council or bailiffs, or if you think your children are being indoctrinated with abnormal sexual education in school, please feel free to contact me on this site or UKIP Leigh.”

Responding to a request for comment from the Wigan Evening Post, he said: “I am a born-again Christian and I am saying that I believe that homosexuality is abnormal.

“That doesn’t mean I haven’t got friends who are homosexuals.”

According to the newspaper, he has been dropped by the party in the wake of the comments.

UKIP Leigh chairman Jayson Lomax-Hargreaves told the Evening Post: “Mr Mills’s comments are Mr Mills’s comments and they do not represent Ukip policy and we do not agree with them.

“He should have posted this on his personal page and not on a Ukip-affiliated page.

“We are dealing with it internally in the party. He is no longer the ward representative for that area.”

Leaked internal vetting documents earlier this year showed the party had knowingly let a number of people flagged as having homophobic views stand as UKIP candidates.

UKIP is currently in the process of electing a new leader after the re-resignation of Nigel Farage, with MEP Steven Woolfe thought to be the front-runner.