UKIP has promised “extra security measures are in place” after their candidate in the SE Cambs Parliamentary seat received a threatening email following her comments on same sex marriages.

Deborah Rennie spoke on the issue at last Saturday’s hustings and following their publication on the Ely Standard website – which was then linked to other websites- UKIP officials say she became a “target” almost immediately.

Pushed whether she personally believed the Act allowing gay marriage should be repealed Mrs Rennie had admitted her “honest answer is I don’t know. I would not be surprised if UKIP considered it but I want to be honest with you and say I am not entirely sure. It did give us great cause for concern when the Act was passed.”

On Tuesday Martin Hale, chairman of UKIP Cambridge and SE Cambs branch, said the threat to his candidate “could be a storm in a teacup but her name has been put out there and she has received a threat to her and her family”.

The email sent to Mrs Rennie insisted “LGBT Rights are Human Rights.

“You, Deborah Rennie are going to prison, we will prosecute you until you die. We want to be compensated for all the harm you did to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex population. Therefore we’re coming after you, your money, your house and other property and your family. You will lose it all. Equal rights for all.”

Mr Hale said: “The police have been informed and security measures are in place and an investigation is ongoing”.

Police, he said, had been at Mrs Rennie’s until the early hours of Tuesday.

Mrs Rennie told the meeting she was concerned when the Bill because law; her party “believes in democracy and believes in people having a choice. Our concern is that churches, whilst having a choice to engage with services of this nature if they turned round and said ‘I’m sorry but not here’ they would find themselves subject to court action under the banner of human rights”.

Tory hopeful Lucy Frazer, answering the same question as to whether the Act should be repealed, said: “I believe in equality in all parts of life, equality of opportunity too.”

But she said a “number of religious organisations was disappointed” by the law and “I wouldn’t have probably put on the statute book in the first place but having introduced it I would not repeal it.”