Wickersley LGBT row vicar steps down as school governor

Peter Hughes, vicar of St Alban's, made the comments in a parish magazine

A vicar who described LGBT inclusive education in schools as "a form of child grooming" has stepped down as a school governor.

The Reverend Peter Hughes, of St Alban's, Wickersley, near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, had made the comments in a parish magazine in June.

Mr Hughes was a school governor at St Alban's CofE Primary School.

Alison Adair, the school's headteacher, said Mr Hughes resigned in June after the school began an investigation.

Mr Hughes had "expressed deep regret for the unwelcome attention the school received and the distraction caused", she said.

"The school accepted his resignation immediately but also formally recorded our appreciation for the several years of unwavering support he had given the school in his time of governor", Ms Adair added.

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Mr Hughes' resignation letter to the school was received on 14 June.

His three-page letter in the St Alban's parish magazine had said: "This sexual indoctrination of young children prepares them for early sexual experimentation, normalises it and, in so doing, opens the door for sexual predators.

"The UK government's proposed Relationships and Sexual Education (RSE) programme is nothing but state-sponsored child abuse."

Primary and secondary pupils in England are to learn about relationships as part of compulsory lessons from September 2020.

The school and its trust previously jointly said Mr Hughes was entitled to his views which they did not share.