Christian People's Alliance candidate Yemi Awolola talks ahead of election

Mr Awolola grew up in Nigeria, moving to London 12 years ago.

He moved to Reading two years ago and started football club FC Whitley Wood.

Below is the Q&A with Yemi to find out why he is standing for your vote in Reading East.

Hi Yemi. Is this your first time standing for election?

I first stood for election in 2015 in Enfield North. It was a paper exercise to see how many votes we could get without campaigning. We got 207 votes.

What have you been talking to people about and what is their response?

Abortion and marriage is a very emotive subject.

People cannot see an alternative to how we can bring abortion down. There’s the argument that I am a man so how can I talk about abortion. My stance is we cannot sit back as Christians and watch 220,000 terminations each year. It is just not acceptable.

None of the politicians want to talk about it because it is not a vote winner.

We’d also introduce a f ive per cent turnover tax to end the scandal of big multi-national companies sending their UK profits abroad in order to avoid paying their fair share of tax. That will help local businesses because they pay corporation tax already.

People like that policy.

Have you found many people who agree with your abortion policy in Reading?

I have never met anyone that agrees with me on that. As soon as you say pro-life and anti-abortion people have made their minds up what you are going to say next.

People say it would go underground and be more dangerous for women. That is not what we are proposing. We are going to put an alternative place and have open debates.

There have been around nine million terminations since 1967.

That is more people than Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago put together. We can’t let that carry on. We want to create a pro-life ethic in politics where we don’t see the need to kill anyone. It’s not popular.

When do you believe life begins?

Life starts from conception.

What is your view on abortions in cases of rape?

Rape is a terrible thing but statistically a very minute percentage of abortions are due to rape.

You have to be careful because there are people around who are a product of rape. Are we saying they shouldn’t be born.

We are going to put in place counselling and therapy and classes to educate people how to deal with this.

If she doesn’t want to have the baby, we will step in and give the baby to a couple that is willing to look after the baby.

We want to move away from killing people in any shape or form.

A lot of people would disagree with that.

People cannot visualise. That works hand in hand with fighting crime. Rape is illegal, we are punishing the child for the offence of the dad.

But you could argue you are punishing the mother?

Some people say that – it is a very emotive subject – but there is no magic wand. We need to get to the point where we can educate people.

You say no one has agreed with you on this.

They might agree with doing something, but they won’t agree with what we need to do. Some people are saying 9 million is a lot. No-one can agree on what we do about it.

How often do people you speak to say abortion is a problem?

In general, it is women who say it is wrong and men who say yes. Most women think it is women’s rights. Some people don’t want to say anything about that.

The other side is the woman decides she wants to have an abortion and the partner wants to keep the baby and his voice is irrelevant.

We believe children are a blessing from God.

On that note, you got a lot of criticism for your views on Chick-fil-A and some people have called your social media posts homophobic.

All my posts have not attacked the person, they have attacked the ideology. People seem to mix them together.

I find the situation with Chick-fil-A disheartening. I was looking for a petition to sign. I didn’t intend to set one up but I couldn’t find one.

I believe this has nothing to do with the company. Even if the company say they are not giving money to this company anymore, the LGBT community are very unforgiving.

They are very forceful with what they want.

I am not against individual LGBT members; it is the pressure they are putting on people.

I know people that said they came to Reading for this company and they say if it goes we are not coming back. No one from the LGBT community will fill this gap.

What’s your view on equal marriage rights?

Civil partnership gives you equal rights. We have to be mindful that once we start tearing down time-tested policies where does it stop?

Once you start the motion, that’s it. There is always going to be another group that wants something else.

Where will we get to?

A man will decide that since a man can marry a man, and a woman a woman, I want to marry my pet.

No. There have been same sex relationships for thousands of years.

It might sound extreme now but it’s a slippery slope.

It is just an example of how bad things can get once you start moving boundaries. We don’t have to redefine everything to accommodate another group.

Once you set the ball in motion we don’t know where it is going to go.

Wouldn’t you be able to stop it along the way if you felt it was going too far?

Once you set the ball in motion it is difficult to stop. It is like a floodgate.

But marrying your pet is a whole different ball isn’t it?

If we were having this conversation in 1940, we would never agree with same sex marriage.

Concrete boundaries are there to safeguard and protect children. We have to be careful before we start moving them around.

Do you think children should be taught about LGBT relationships?

Children should be taught a variety of ideologies – not one single one should dominate.

My concern is that LGBT is going to be superimposed over everything else.

I don’t think children should be taught sex education till around the age of 14. Children are non-sexual

Isn’t that like men saying women are going to have more rights than us?

That’s different because for years the way women have been viewed has been wrong.

And not for the LGBT community?

In some countries it is still illegal. I understand that but it is completely different. If you give women equal rights it doesn’t have a devastating effect on children.

Why would treating gay people with equal rights have a devastating effect?

We are talking about a slippery slope. Then we’ll get the age of consent lower – down to 12.

It feels like a big jump again

We are always looking at the extreme. What can possibly go wrong.

Gay people could just as well say straight ideology is being imposed on them?

We shouldn’t dismantle the first ideology to make room for the next one.

Children are perceptive. Nobody taught me how to chase women. That’s something I learnt when I grew up..

Let's move on to Brexit

We believe the people voted to leave and we leave.

When you win, you win. It is like football.

You cannot be part of a club and have a good negotiation to leave. You leave and make the deal from outside. Our policy was to leave before the referendum.

We want another vote in five years after we leave whether to rejoin or stay out.

What about climate change?

God has given us this environment and we have to be good custodians. We agree with the Green Party totally on looking after the environment.

And the NHS?

It should be properly funded. The government has brought in expensive consultants. The people doing the profession are the best judges.

The NHS should be able to do deals that don’t pander to multi-national companies.

How would you connect with people locally as an MP?

I would have regular surgeries and encourage young people to have an interest in politics. I would organise trips for young people to parliament.