Cameron defends Tory candidate over gay demons claims

Conservative leader David Cameron has come out in support of a Christian Tory parliamentary candidate following a report in the Observer that a church she founded tried to “cure” homosexuals of their “demons”.

Three people spoke to the newspaper about their experiences at the King’s Arms Project, a church and night shelter founded by Philippa Stroud, who is standing in Sutton and Cheam in south London.

One teenage girl told of how the church had tried to persuade her that her transsexual “thinking was wrong” and how church members had prayed over her, “calling out the demons”.

A man who sought help from the church to stop having homosexual thoughts said the church’s aim was “to get a person to a position where they don’t have these sinful thoughts and emotions”.

Mrs Stroud responded to the report in The Observer with a statement in which she claimed she had been misreported.

“The idea that I am prejudiced against gay people is both false and insulting,” she said.

"I make no apology for being a committed Christian.

"However it is categorically untrue that I believe homosexuality to be an illness, and I am deeply offended that the Observer has suggested otherwise."

Mrs Stroud worked with the destitute in Hong Kong before returning to found the King’s Arm Project in Bedford in 1989. She continued to be involved in the project for the next 10 years before moving on to plant another church in Birmingham with her husband David, a New Frontiers minister.

She is currently the head of the Centre for Social Justice, a thinktank set up by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith that has played a large part in the formation of the Conservatives’ policies on the family.

Mr Cameron defended Mrs Stroud and her “very clear statement” during an interview with BBC Asian Network.

Asked if he believed homosexuality could be cured, he said: "I don't believe that, and she [Stroud]'s actually put out a very clear statement to say she was completely misreported; she believes in gay equality."