Ukip leadership: John Rees-Evans who claimed gay donkey raped his horse stands for leader

PA
Saphora Smith24 October 2016

A Ukip parliamentary candidate who once claimed his horse was raped by a “homosexual donkey” is standing to be party leader.

John Rees-Evans apologised for the remark which he made in response to a question about whether some gay men prefer having sex with animals.

He described the comment as “playful banter” but admitted that it was a “mistake”.

Mr Rees-Evans made the comments in December 2014 in front of activists outside a UKIP campaign office in Merthyr Tydfil.

One protestor confronted the UKIP politician over claims that a fellow party member had said that “some homosexuals prefer sex with animals.”

The former soldier responded: “Actually, I’ve witnessed that. I’ve got a horse and it was there in the field. And a donkey came up, which was male, and I’m afraid tried to rape my horse.”

He said that his horse then bit the donkey and that he also had to come and intervene to protect the animal.

In an interview with the BBC’s Daily Politics programme Mr Evans-Rees apologised for his “error of judgment.”

He said: “It was a bit of playful banter with a mischievous activist, I’m sorry if I offended anyone in doing that.

“I concede it was a mistake to be playful with an activist in a street. The fact is I’m not a politician. The guy was just asking me questions in the street. It was an error of judgment.”

Mr Rees-Evans is one of several candidates standing to replace Diane James as the leader of the party including Suzanne Evans, Paul Nuttall and Raheem Kassam.

The leadership contest follows Ms James’s resignation as party leader 18 days after she was appointed.

Ms James said she was stepping down because she felt she did not have “sufficient authority, nor the full support of MEP colleagues and party officers.”

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