Anti-LGBT MP Roger Godsiff loses his seat, after vowing to defy ‘militant’ LGBT activists
Labour MP Roger Godsiff (BBC/Victoria Derbyshire)
Roger Godsiff, who was ejected from the Labour Party for campaigning against LGBT-inclusive education, has failed in his bid to be re-elected as an independent.
Godsiff, who had sat in Parliament since 1992, was blocked from standing as a Labour candidate over his beliefs that it is not “age appropriate” for five-year-olds to learn that gay parents exist.
Roger Godsiff blamed ‘militant LGBT activists’ for ousting him from Labour
While announcing his election bid in his former Birmingham Hall Green constituency, Godsiff had claimed he was targeted by “intolerant militant activists” including “the Chief Whip, Nick Brown, who is a member of the LGBT community.”
His independent election bid had earned support from anti-LGBT activists, with protest organiser Shakeel Afsar calling on supporters to “not allow the extremist lobby within the LGBT community and the Labour Party to bring a good man down.”
Ex-MP for Birmingham Hall Green, Roger Godsiff. (LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty)
However, Godsiff failed to win over constituents in Birmingham Hall Green in Thursday’s election, earning just 4,273 votes votes – behind both Labour’s Tahar Ali on 35,889 votes and Conservative candidate Penny-Anne O’Donnell on 7,381.
Ali, the newly-elected MP is a supporter of LGBT+ inclusive education.
Godsiff had heavily focused his campaign on the issue, claiming he supports “traditional Labour values.”
He claimed: “Because I have always put the interests of my constituents first and have been prepared to take on independent stand against ‘political correctness,’ the controlling faction within the Labour Party have refused to have me as an official candidate.
“Instead, they have chosen a candidate who will always toe the party line and do what he is told.”
Ex-MP admitted not reading books he criticised
In May, Godsiff admitted he didn’t bother to read LGBT+ children’s books before attacking them publicly.
The MP had repeatedly cited the book My Chacha is Gay, which is about a Pakistani boy who has a gay uncle, in interviews supporting the protests outside schools.
However, asked about the book by Victoria Derbyshire, Godsiff replied: “I don’t know, I’ve only seen the front page.”
He then appeared to admit the only information he had about the books were supplied by anti-LGBT protesters, adding: “It’s an issue for a number of parents at the school. That was one of the documents I was given by some of the protesters as a cover of one of the books given to children.”
