Boris Johnson sacks anti-gay-marriage MP Esther McVey from his cabinet

Words: Steve Brown

Boris Johnson has sacked Esther McVey as the Minister of State for Housing and Planning.

McVey – who was in the running to be the new Tory leader last year – was the Minister of State for Housing and Planning but now the renowned homophobe, who said parents should have the “final say” over whether their children are taught about the existence of LGBT families in school, has been removed from Johnson’s cabinet, the Guardian reports.

“I believe parents know best for children. And whilst they’re still children – and you’re talking there in primary schools – then really the parents need to have the final say in what they want their children to know,” McVey said last year.

“People shouldn’t be protesting outside primary schools. That’s young primary school children going into schools there. Everybody has to be a little bit more adult, a little bit more grown-up in what they do outside primary schools.”

McVey has a history of voting against marriage equality, according to website TheyWorkForYou. The site reveals the Tory member voted two times against marriage equality.

She also voted against making same sex marriage available to armed forces personnel outside the UK.

Ally and former Attitude cover star Lorraine Kelly hit back at her former GMTV colleague last year in an iconic clip that went viral on Good Morning Britain.

this longer version of that Lorraine Kelly/Esther McVey clip might be the most brutal thing I’ve ever witnessed pic.twitter.com/B8NTPes6uT

— Matthew Champion (@matthewchampion) June 10, 2019

While speaking to Attitude’s January ‘Activists & Allies’ issue, Lorraine once again slammed McVey for her views on LGBTQ rights and said: “We’re all entitled to our points of view when it comes to politics and all of that, but if something’s actually wrong, it doesn’t matter whether you’re really left, right or you’re in the middle, I don’t care what party you’re in.

“And you’ve got people like Esther McVey and Ann Widdecombe with their stance on the whole LGBT community, which is just wrong.

“I don’t find that political, I just find that this is either right, or it isn’t. My point of view is that if something’s unjust, or not right, you should call it.”

Other MPs who have been given the sack include former Minister of State for Transport, George Freeman, who voted twice against marriage equality, and was absent twice when voting for same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, according to TheyWorkForYou.

Geoffrey Cox, the now-former Attorney General for England and Wales, Advocate General for Northern Ireland, has a similar, if not identical, voting record to Freeman.

Cox voted against marriage equality in England twice and was absent, twice, when voting for same-sex marriages to arrive in Northern Ireland, the website reveals.