Out Tory MP Greg Barker steps down as minister and won’t stand again in 2015
Out Tory MP Greg Barker has stepped down as Minister of State for Climate Change, and will stand down at the next election.
Barker, 48, has been removed from his post as junior minister in the Department of Energy and Climate Change, where he served under Liberal Democrat Ed Davey.
Despite his resignation from the government, he will reportedly continue to hold a role as a green adviser to David Cameron.
He will not stand for election next year, having represented the constituency of Bexhill and Battle since 2001.
Barker encouraged former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Nigel Evans to come out as gay in 2010, when he asked him if he would mind being included on a list of gay politicians.
He is the second gay Tory minister to leave today, following Alan Duncan, who quit his post as International Development minister International Development Minister, during this evening’s Government reshuffle.
Duncan was the first gay Tory MP to come out voluntarily and was also the first MP to have a civil partnership.
Elsewhere, Tory MP Dominic Grieve, who claimed homosexuals are ‘a bit weird’, has stepped down from his post as Attorney General, and David Jones MP, who said same-sex couples “clearly” could not provide “a warm and safe environment for the upbringing of children,” was sacked as Welsh Minister.
