ANGER OVER GAY POLITICIAN POLL

The UK’s Sun newspaper has been criticised for publishing a poll asking if gay people should be allowed to become cabinet ministers.

The survey comes in the wake of the resignation of David Laws as Chief Secretary to the Treasury after it was revealed that he had given his boyfriend taxpayer’s money that was allocated to him for rent.

He has claimed that he did not reveal that he was staying at his boyfriend’s home because he was too afraid to come out as gay.

Laws (44) said in a statement: “I have paid a high price for trying to keep my sexuality a secret. Losing your privacy, your Cabinet job and your perceived integrity within 48 hours isn’t very easy.”

Of the 958 people polled by the Sun only 5% said that gay cabinet ministers were “a bad thing” while 76 % said they did not mind if cabinet ministers are gay.

The survey has been compared to the controversial December 2009 online discussion topic published on a BBC website that asked “Should homosexuals face execution?“

In 1998, after it was revealed that then Prime Minister Tony Blair had four gay ministers in his cabinet, the Sun published a headline that read: : “Tell us the truth Tony: are we being run by a gay mafia?”