A FOREST council candidate has come under pressure to withdraw from tomorrow's election after anti-gay comments appeared on his Facebook page.

Comments on the Facebook page of John Sullivan, the UKIP candidate for Newent in Gloucestershire County Council election, congratulated Russia for banning gay pride marches and claimed that regular exercise could prevent homosexuality.

Other posts suggested that children should be educated in the way dogs are trained and that feminism is "evil".

It is not clear whether the comments were made by Mr Sullivan himself or that his Facebook account has been "hacked", allowing others to post comments.

UKIP says it is looking into the matter - and party members in the Forest have claimed it is part of a "dirty tricks" campaign.

James Carver of UKIP South West, said: "UKIP take any allegations of this nature extremely seriously.

"We are currently looking into this matter, and the medium from which the allegations arose. It will not be possible to complete a full and thorough investigation before May 2 (the day of the election), but we will reach a decision in the coming weeks, once we have concluded our investigation."

A storm of condemnation erupted at the comments, with one Facebook news item on the matter being shared by over 25,000 users.

An anti-extremist campaigner contacted the Review to point out the 'massive homophobia row' that was emerging internationally in the light of the comments with calls for UKIP to ditch the candidate.

A post suggesting that: "Physical exercise...released boys' tensions and thus avoided homosexuality" and another congratulating a ban on gay pride marches in Moscow prompted a storm of controversy.

The controversial comments were removed from the site but they had already been copied and circulated by activists.

John Sullivan is standing in Newent against five other candidates in the county council election. They are: Philip Burford (Independant), David Fidgeon (Liberal Democrat), David Humphreys (Green), Janet Royall (Labour), and Will Windsor-Clive (Conservative).