Scottish Labour councillor suspended for homophobia

A Labour councillor in Scotland has been suspended after allegedly referring to the chair of a local LGBT* group as a deviant.

Dumfries & Galloway Labour councillor, Tom McAughtrie, has been placed under administrative suspension by the Scottish Labour Party after he allegedly posted the comment on social media.

Birmingham Labour candidate resigns over homophobia

A gay member of the Hall Green Labour Party's executive committee has resigned from the committee over homophobia within the Birmingham Labour Party.

Luke Holland says that he has been told to hide the fact that he is gay or his selection as an election candidate would be blocked and has been on the receiving end of homophobic comments from Labour councillors.

Chair of LGBT* in UKIP, Flo Lewis, said:

It is utterly shameful that in the 21st century individuals still suffer at the hands of homophobia and discrimination. It is a further shame that this individual had to resign in order to evoke an investigation. Instances like these demonstrate that homophobia goes beyond political party. It is a problem that we must unite and tackle as a society.

Holland has threatened to resign from the Labour Party if nothing is done to address the homophobia in the party.

Welsh Labour MP under investigation for homophobic bullying

A Labour MP is under investigation for homophobic bullying.

Carolyn Harris, the MP for Swansea East, is accused of physically and verbally bullying one of her aides, Jenny Lee Clarke, after she came out as a lesbian.

Harris allegedly pulled Clarke's hair and made comments about her "dyke" appearance as well as asking for details of her sex life.

Clarke has since been sacked by the MP and is taking action for unfair dismissal.

Benjamin Harris-Quinney suspended from Conservative Party

The chairman of the oldest Conservative think tank, the Bow Group, has been suspended for making comments against LGBT rights at a Christian event in Moscow and calling for Conservatives to vote UKIP in the election.

Benjamin Harris-Quinney is a councillor on East Herts District Council and chairman of the influential Conservative Party Bow Group. In the run up to the elections earlier this month he called on eurosceptic Conservatives to vote UKIP in places where the Conservatives couldn't win so the writing was on the wall as far as his future with the Conservative Party was concerned. The discovery of a video of him briefing against gay rights and celebrating the fact that most Conservative MPs voted against gay marriage was the final nail in the coffin. The complaint against him is believed to have been made by radio presenter, political blogger and publisher Iain Dale.

SNP Councillor charged with homophobic assault

The SNP Deputy Leader of Glasgow City Council, Billy McAllister, has been charged with a homophobic assault.

McAllister, who has a previous conviction for using threatening behaviour towards a disabled person, is alleged to have assaulted a gay councillor along with another man who has also been charged.

Newham Conservatives in hot water over leaflets again

Another of Newham Conservatives' leaflets have caused controversy - and this time involving the police.

Earlier this month Newham Conservatives attracted widespread criticism for distributing a sectarian leaflet targeting the Muslim vote by promising to give them special treatment. Their latest offering criticises the number of gays and atheists running the council. The leaflets don't bear the required imprint and are therefore illegal. They have been reported to the Met Police by Newham Labour Party.

Sectarian Conservative leaflet distributed earlier this month

Labour activist makes homophobic remarks against councillor

A West Derby Labour activist has been warned by the Labour Party to stop posting about his Liberal Party rival after a number of complaints about his homophobic comments.

Stephen Poulson has been making offensive comments about Liverpool's first openly gay councillor, Cllr Steve Radford, for two years and the latest comments led to him to take legal advice. Poulson had suggested that Cllr Radford had a "sexual bias" in his position as chair of a Scouts group and claimed that he kept a gimp sex slave in his cellar.

Poulson has been threatened with expulsion from the Labour Party if he continues to harass Cllr Radford. He says that his opinions are his own and not the Labour Party's, Cllr Radford says that the Labour Party haven't done enough to deal with Poulson's homophobia.

Earlier this week the Local Government Association criticised Labour-run Thanet District Council for not doing enough to tackle toxic and homophobic behaviour, resulting in the resignation of the Labour leader. Applying the same logic that the media use for UKIP, we should expect all the papers to denounce the Labour Party as homophobic and Ed Miliband's next interview to be dominated by questions about Labour Party homophobia.

English Democrats' homophobic slur against Nikki Sinclaire MEP

Just when you thought the English Democrats couldn't get any lower, they pull this out of the bag ...

I have no time for Nikki Sinclaire as a person or a politician because of the awful, selfish way she behaved during her final spat with UKIP but this sort of attack on someone because of their sexuality is disgusting. There's enough prejudice in society against homosexuals and transsexuals without a political party stirring up homophobic sentiment. It seems that the English Democrats aren't just racist but they're homophobic as well - and they're asking for 1.2m votes in the EU elections next year!

I have reported this picture twice to Facebook but they've refused to take it down (although their moral compass did lead them to suspend my Facebook account for 24 hours a month or so ago because someone objected to me saying that unemployed people should do community service for their benefits - something that weeks later is announced as government policy). I have sent the details to Nikki Sinclaire so that she can take whatever action she deems necessary.