Portsmouth councillor slammed for conversion therapy remarks

Matthew Atkins voted against the motion supporting a ban on conversion therapy

A city councillor has been criticised for comments he made ahead of a vote about a ban on conversion therapy.

Portsmouth councillors voted 37 to one to support a ban on the practise that seeks to stop someone being gay, or from living as a different gender to the sex recorded at birth.

Matthew Atkins said he feared a ban could criminalise religious support groups for consenting adults.

Fellow councillors described his comments as "wildly unacceptable".

Mr Atkins, former leader of the Conservative group, told the full Portsmouth City Council meeting on Wednesday that he did not support conversion therapy but did not think it was right to "criminalise the behaviour of a marginal group who are doing so in a consenting adult fashion".

He was the only councillor to vote against the motion.

He said: "Are you telling certain people who have some homosexual attraction - maybe not exclusively - that they have to embrace that lifestyle? Because if you were born religious or become religious, then there are difficult passages in most religions for those people."

'Absolute outrage'

He added: "We don't want to drive under the carpet people who choose to live out their lives in a way different from how we might understand."

Lib Dem councillor Stuart Brown, who proposed the motion, said Mr Atkins was "on the wrong side of history" and said "being LGBT+ is not a lifestyle choice".

Mr Madgwick, Independent, said: "For somebody in this room to sit for six-and-a-half minutes and try and justify opposing this is an absolute outrage."

Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said the authority needed to show "leadership" by calling on the government to impose a ban, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Many people who have been through conversion therapy say it has left them traumatised.

The government is launching a public consultation on a proposed ban later this month.