Harrogate MP steps into controversy over Tory candidate's 'homophobic comments'
Harrogate’s MP has intervened in the days leading to this week’s first-ever Harrogate Town Council elections to criticise a candidate’s alleged homophobic remarks.
With just days until voters go to the polls on Thursday, May 1, Lib Dem MP Tom Gordon has called on the Conservative Party to take action against one of its candidates.
Mr Gordon said Antony Murphy, who is standing for the Duchy ward, should not have been picked after comments he had made claiming homosexuality was “intrinsically disordered” and that “AIDS is a disease spread by the depraved”.
“Someone who publicly expresses such offensive views has no place in public life,” argued the Harrogate and Knaresborough Lib Dem MP.
"If you can’t respect the people you represent, you shouldn’t stand for office.
“The Conservative Party must take action. Our communities deserve better.”
But both the candidate and the Tory Party have defended his selection, saying Mr Murphy’s comments were historic, dating from 2023 and before, and part of a heated religious debate.
Anthony Murphy said: "There are circulating some historic comments made at a time of intense debate and high emotion, generally in religious communities and particularly the Catholic Church.
"I am a practicing catholic. Alongside many of my faith and of other faiths, I hold beliefs about the nature of marriage that lead me to oppose same-sex marriage."
Rebecca Reeve-Burnett, Chair of the Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative Association, said the Tory Party did "not not tolerate homophobia or any other kind of discrimination".
But, she added, they were standing by Mr Murphy as a candidate.
Lib Dem MP Tom Gordon has also taken fire this week at Reform UK for leader Nigel Farage's controversial views on SEND youngsters.
The former leader of UKIP and Brexit supporter claimed family doctors were ‘massively over-diagnosing' children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Mr Gordon said: “Mr Farage’s comments are grim.
"Vulnerable children must not be turned into pawns for some awful culture war.
"Day in, day out I hear distressing stories from families struggling to work within our broken SEND system to get the support they desperately need.”