BOLTON MP Sir David Crausby has hit back at criticism of his voting record on LGBT rights.

The Bolton North East MP received a Knighthood in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list but the decision has caused some anger within the LGBT community.

This is because Mr Crausby has previously voted to oppose equal marriage, same-sex adoption and IVF as well as voting against repealing Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which said local authorities could not promote homosexuality. 

Labour Lord Michael Cashman — the co-founder of LGBT campaign group Stonewall — took to twitter to criticise leader Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to nominate Mr Crausby for the honour.

He said: “Why Jeremy Corbyn have you given knighthood to Lab MP who voted against repealing Section 28, against gay adoption & against equal marriage?”

In response, Mr Crausby accused Lord Cashman of himself being intolerant of other people’s views and pointed out that he had backed several pieces of legislation which supported the LGBT community.

He said: “I’m very tolerant towards the LGTB community and I think Lord Cashman should be more tolerant of other people’s views.

“My views are that same sex marriage is not the same as opposite sex marriage, but that is not to say that it is unequal in any way, just that its different in my opinion, I took that view at the time and I’m not ashamed of that.

“I think we should celebrate our diversity and not just try to be all the same.

“I don’t think same sex marriage delivered anything different to civil partnerships, which I voted for.

“I also voted to equalize the legal age of sexual consent for homosexual couples because I think that is right.”

On adoption, he added: “I took the view that children should always come first and legislation should absolutely be in the interests of the child and not the adoptive parents.

“You can call me old fashioned but I have always believed that for children, it is a good thing to have parents of different genders.”

The 70-year-old MP added: “I have always taken each piece of legislation as it comes and judged them individually, I don’t think politicians should be forced to just go with the flow all the time.

“But I didn’t start this argument and that is why I talk about intolerance. There are some people who start and argument and if you disagree they attack you, that is intolerant in my opinion.

“As an unelected member of the House of Lords he is entitled to his opinion, but he isn’t going to worry me.