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'I would not partner with parties that have racist or homophobic views'
David Cameron
Cameron: My Polish allies are not homophobic
David Cameron has spoken about his party's future commitment to gay rights but once again denied that his Polish allies in the European Parliament are homophobic.
Interviewed by Johann Hari for Attitude magazine, the Conservative leader repeatedly refused to condemn the track record of the Polish Law and Justice Party's Michal Kaminski, leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists group.
Kaminski, once the spin-doctor for President Kaczynski, who campaigned against the Lisbon Treaty on the grounds that it would force Poland to accept gay marriage, was caught on video by the BBC in 2000 repeatedly describing gays as "fags".
Cameron admitted that the alliance would make it harder for some people to vote Conservative but said his party should be in a group which wants an "open, flexible, trading Europe" and insisted: "I don't believe they are homophobic. I would not partner with parties that have racist or homophobic views."
But although he didn't think any more new legislation was needed to protect gay people, saying: "I think it's much more about culture than about law now," he committed a Tory government to continue to support gay adoption and give asylum for anyone fleeing persecution because of their sexual orientation.
It would also consider reversing the ban on gay men giving blood, and on the question of the Church of England's attitude to gay equality, he said: "I don't want to get into a huge row with the Archbishop here...but the Church has to do some of the things that the Conservative party has been through - sorting this issue out and recognising that full equality is a bottom-line, full essential."
