Gay Tory MP says Conservative Party should 'never underestimate' the damage done by Section 28

Iain Stewart says the law which prevented 'the promotion' of homosexuality in schools made him feel like he didn't belong in politics

A gay Tory MP has told how he questioned whether he would be able to pursue his dream of entering politics because he feared a backlash over his sexuality.

Iain Stewart said he worried about being "cast aside" and prevented from fulfilling his ambition of entering the House of Commons.

He has previously told how homophobic bullying was rife while he was a boy at school in Glasgow, and it took him many years to get over the feeling of being different and isolated.

Speaking movingly in the Commons about his experiences, the MP for Milton Keynes South also criticised Section 28 - the controversial law introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government banning schools and councils from promoting homosexuality.

He told MPs: "Just looking at a career you want to pursue, and thinking you can't, is very damaging.

"I, for a long time in my teenage years and early 20s when I decided that politics was my passion and this was a career I wanted to pursue, I did think for a time, 'actually I can't do it'.

"I would live in fear of being revealed for who I was, something that was so innate in me - I can't change being gay, that's the way I was born. It's as natural as being left-handed, right-handed, or the colour of your hair, or whatever.

"But I felt I can't pursue a career in politics because I'm so afraid that I'd be cast aside and prevented from doing it, exposed, whatever, because of who I was. And that was in the late 1980s, early 1990s."

Mr Stewart, who made the comments during a debate on a Bill to repeal defunct laws suggesting it is possible to dismiss a seafarer for being gay, said he became determined to not let these fears stop him.

He said: "I didn't feel it was right for me to be dissuaded from my career choice because of that.

"Imagine saying to someone like Terry Wogan you couldn't be a radio broadcaster because you have an Irish accent, it's that level of ridiculousness.

"And I got through that. It took me a long time to realise that actually I could still do this career, and now it's not an issue at all."

But he stressed that the Conservative Party must acknowledge the historic role it played in perpetuating these fears among the gay community by introducing Section 28.

He told the Commons: "That's why Section 28, or Section 2A as it was in Scotland, was so damaging. It really had a detrimental effect. And this party, we have made an apology for it but we shouldn't underestimate the damage that caused at the time.

"I know it was initially introduced not as a discriminatory measure but a measure to curb the excesses of some local authorities at the time, but that was the effect it had."

His comments come in the week the House of Commons was found to be one of the most LGBT-friendly places to work in the national survey carried out by campaign group Stonewall. It was placed at number 28 out of 100.

PA