Shock news: there are gay MPs in the Tory party

So it is finally back to normal for the Conservative Party after last week's "Top Tories in Turmoil" headlines. This week, Alan Duncan, the junior shadow foreign affairs spokesman, has brought us back to usual service with that other great standby, "Top Tory in Gay Confession". Except this time something has definitely changed. In the past such stories would be sparked by a tabloid-led scandal "outing" the hapless MP, which would invariably be followed by a resignation and even speculation as to a deselection.

For once, a Tory has "come out" in the controlled environment of an exclusive interview to a broadsheet newspaper. This time, there is even a letter of support from Iain Duncan Smith and the full weight of the Central Office machine, with the new chairman, Theresa May, hailing Mr Duncan as an example of the new gay-friendly party. No hint of the local blue rinses causing trouble in his constituency of Rutland and Melton, and a confirmation that his front-bench job is safe. Indeed, if I were being facetious, I would only criticise Mr Duncan for not getting his story out a fortnight ago. Perhaps he might have become the new party chairman in last week's reshuffle.

But whatever the timing, this is certainly a good career move for Mr Duncan. If he continues to languish in the second division of the Tory ranks, critics will say that Iain Duncan Smith has failed to prove his "gay-friendly" credentials. So you can put a safe bet on Mr Duncan getting into the Shadow Cabinet at the next reshuffle. If Mrs May was the symbol, last week, that the Tories have noticed the existence of women, Mr Duncan will surely be next, signifying that they have finally noticed that gays also have the vote.

It is all a far cry form my own experiences nearly a decade ago, when The News of the World paid a five-figure sum to a disgruntled student (the son of a former news editor of a Scottish newspaper) who supplied stolen pictures of me on holiday in Barbados with a gay man aged 20. The age of consent was still 21 at the time, and so I was pilloried as a "lawmaker as lawbreaker". Within minutes of the first edition appearing, Downing Street advised me that my resignation would be accepted. I jumped because, at the height of the "Back to Basics" furore, the chances of my surviving a media hounding would have been slight.

There is one Rubicon yet to be crossed for the Tory party, and that is the willingness of candidates to admit their sexuality to a selection committee before they are selected, adopted or elected. One openly gay candidate, David Gold, was selected in Brighton Pavilion at the last general election. Although the constituency has a large gay population, he failed to get elected – but the vote he attracted was a marginal improvement on the Conservatives' 1997 result.

Mr Duncan, 10 years after he was elected, has decided to make a virtue out of what was already an open secret at Westminster, and has always consistently voted on gay-friendly issues in the division lobbies. Whether he would have been selected for his constituency when he was originally applying for the nomination in 1991 had he given such an interview on the eve of the constituency general meeting is doubtful. Here is the reason why so many gay MPs have, in the past, preferred to keep quiet about such matters. The big test is whether local parties are prepared to select such candidates voluntarily or whether they will resist any attempts by Central Office to force their hand.

My former colleague, Matthew Parris, who was elected with me in 1979 for the safe seat of West Derbyshire, told me of an interview he had with the Tory Chief Whip, Michael (now Lord) Jopling, shortly after he arrived in the Commons. Mr Parris volunteered his circumstances and was met with a bizarre response. "Matthew, I'm going to tell you a secret. I don't believe in God. But I go to church regularly and no one is any the wiser." Mr Parris continued to speak out on gay issues in the knowledge that his closet was always unlocked and spoke and voted, as I did, on gay issues as they arose.

Indeed, it was not all bad. The media, both newspapers and television, conspired with the establishment to gloss over the peccadilloes of politicians whether they were serial adulterers, gay or drunks. At the worst, Private Eye might occasionally refer to me as the "single, confirmed bachelor, exotic MP for Scunthorpe who seems to employ a succession of attractive young men". If I received a call from a national newspaper, feeding off such a report, I had orders to contact the whips' office who would then set a grandee, who was friendly with the proprietor, on to the paper with orders to lay off me.

The cosy pact between the political and media establishment endured until the early 1990s. The late Peter Morrison, for example, was gay and served as Margaret Thatcher's parliamentary private secretary.

In those days being called homosexual was tantamount to being libelled. Now that courts no longer regard this as the case, the media is, perfectly reasonably, more inquisitive. But it will probably take several more "coming outs" before we finally recognise that the Conservative Party is as gay as it has always been. This is just one big yawn of a story, and I am boring myself even writing about it.

mrbrown@pimlico.freeserve.co.uk