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A leaflet being circulated at the Ukip party conference claims a campaign to challenge homophobia in primary schools amounts to "sexual grooming".

The flyer says a programme discouraging homophobia in British primary schools is a recruitment drive for "fresh blood" - because "such people cannot produce their own kind.

In an astonishing interview, London Ukip candidate Winston McKenzie distanced the party from the flyer, saying he sympathised with "people of that ilk" - meaning the LGBT community - but blamed homophobic bullying in schools on "the media."

But a leading figure in the group responsible for the leaflet said "things were better in the old days"

Reverend Philip Foster told Buzzfeed: “Christian or not, you have to be concerned that children as young as six are being taught this kind of stuff,” said Foster. “They’re using the hook of bullying to push this agenda, it’s bonkers to say primary school children are being bullied over homosexuality.”

“I don’t know if this is an official UKIP position,” he added. “But [UKIP education spokesman] Paul Nuttall agrees that we should get rid of sex education in primary schools.”

Follow our live coverage of the Ukip Spring Conference

It comes just a day after the chair of Ukip's LGBT wing resigned from his position and from the party over what he described as the "failure of the leadership to set a gay-friendly tone."

The leaflet, distributed by a group called Ukip Christian Soldiers, attacks the Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools (CHIPS) project, which aims to make all schools LGBT friendly.

(Image: Federica Cocco)

Winston McKenzie, Ukip candidate in Croydon North, said: "It's all wrong. We don't need a recruitment drive for homosexuals. It's not a Ukip leaflet. I don't want to get involved in this kind of thing."

Mr Mckenzie, who was condemned by LGBT rights group Stonewall in 2012 after claiming that some people pretend to be gay "as a sort of fashion", also claimed the media were responsible for the bullying of LGBT people in schools.

He said: "You have, to in many ways sympathise with people of that ilk. The media and all the red tops are promoting the bullying.

"Look if you're asking me what do I think about the age children should be introduced to sex and their bodies and their way of living, I would say children should be allowed to be children for as long as possible"

In a 2012 interview with the Croydon advertiser on same sex adoption, Mr Mckenzie said: "Some people take on being gay as a sort of fashion. Celebrities come out to become more well known, it gets attention. It's a fact of life that some people actually are gay. They are what they are.

"They can't help it but the other bunch take on being gay as a fashion and push it because they have nothing better to do with their lives. They let the side down."

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall condemned the comments, describing them as "inflammatory".

Ukip Christian Soldiers ran a fringe event at the party's main conference in Doncaster in September, where they hosted a speech from Cornish B&B owner Hazelmary Bull entitled "Punished for Believing in Marriage".

A Ukip spokesperson said: "These groups are authorised but not official, they are mechanisms for members with shared interests to associate but have no official role or status. They do not represent the party or its policies.

"This leaflet was recently brought to our attention. Authorised groups are not allowed to invent Ukip policy, and we do not consider that this leaflet is of an acceptable standard to be associated with the Ukip brand."

What the leaflet says:

(Image: Federica Cocco)

"CHIPS is indoctrinating children to confuse their gender identity and encouraging them to read stories about, to think about and to sing songs about same sex attraction and then to act them out in class."

"What the LGBT is achieving, of course is a recruitment drive. As such people cannot reproduce their own kind, they must recruit and this is best done among children in schools, the younger the better. The Government, through [Chief Whip and former education secretary Michael] Gove and [current education secretary Nicki] Morgan have given them carte blanche."

It also includes the lyrics of a song called My Princess Boy, from a children's book by Cheryl Kilodavis, which they claim causes "gender confusion" in primary school children.