John Rees-Evans — a United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leadership hopeful — has apologized for claiming his horse bit a “homosexual donkey” to avoid getting raped.
Rees-Evans made the comments in 2014 during a UKIP campaigning event. An anti-UKIP activist asked what he thought about some of his fellow party members saying “some homosexuals prefer sex with animals.”
“Actually, I’ve witnessed that,” Rees-Evans responded. “I’ve got a horse and it was there in the field. And a donkey came up … which was male, and I’m afraid [he] tried to rape my horse.”
Rees-Evans disregarded the comments as “a bit of playful banter” Monday during an interview on BBC’s “Daily Politics.”
“I concede it was a mistake to be playful with an activist in the street,” Rees-Evans said. “The fact is I’m not a politician. The guy was just asking me questions in the street. It was an error of judgment.”
Rees-Evans is the eighth person to announce his candidacy to replace Nigel Farage as UKIP leader.
Farage stepped down shortly after the Brexit vote in June. His successor, Diane James, resigned from the role Oct. 4 after just 18 days. Steven Woolfe, the frontrunner to take over the job, quit the party after being hospitalized following an argument at a UKIP meeting in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. (RELATED: UKIP Leadership Hopeful In Serious Condition After Altercation In EU Parliament)
Woolfe called the party “ungovernable” and “riddled with infighting” as he announced he was no longer in the running. Farage serves as interim leader for the time being.
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