Conservative leader David Cameron has apologised for Section 28 and predicted his party will have the first openly gay prime minister, Pink Paper can exclusively reveal.
He made the comments on 30 June at an evening Tory fundraising event, to mark gay Pride in London on 4 July.
And he defended the party’s new European allies, saying they have shifted from their previous homophobic views.
When asked about tackling homophobic bullying in schools he said in future, he wanted binding home-school contracts, to regulate behaviour and to be signed before pupils start at a school. And he said headteachers should be able to exclude bullies without an endless right to appeal about expulsions.
Apologising for Section 28, a Conservative law introduced in the late 1980s which effectively prevented teaching about gay issues, he said: “Yes we may have sometimes been slow and yes we may have made mistakes, including Section 28, but the change has happened.”
He described the section as “offensive to gay people”.
Among the guests at the event was Robin Squire, who was the only Conservative MP at the time to vote against the hated law.
Cameron went on to defended his new European allies, the Polish Law and Justice Party, who have been branded homophobic by campaigners.
He said: “The aim of forming a new group in the European Parliament is to have centre right parties who want to belong to Europe but who do not believe in endless further integration. In order to get partners, we have had to go all across Europe.
“We have spoken to [Polish Law and Justice Party] about these issues. They do believe in equal rights and they have made that very clear. Did they, in the past, call for the banning of gay Pride marches? Yes they did. Did every other party in Poland do that? Yes they did. But I think they do take a more modern view now.”
He admitted he didn’t have a “perfect record” on gay rights himself but also insisted his own party had changed and praised the openly gay Conservatives who are standing for winnable UK parliament seats at the next general election.
He told the guests: “It does give me great pride to be standing here to celebrate gay Pride and all you have achieved.
“If five years ago we had a Conservative and gay Pride party, I don’t think many gay people would have come or many Conservatives would have come. In wanting to make the party representative of the country, I think we have made some real progress.
“If we do win the next election, instead of being a white middle class middle-aged party, rather like me really [laughing], we will be far more diverse.”
He said this had been achieved through “positive action” including changing selection rules, but also said it was the grass-roots Tory activists who chose parliamentary candidates so the selection of openly gay men and women indicated the wider party had changed their attitudes.
Cameron went on: “If you genuinely want to be a party for the whole country, it is no good unless everyone in that country can see people like them in your party.
“Of course the argument about equality and respect is important but we can quite often win by using quite Conservative arguments. Every Conservative believes in a meritocracy in which you can rise higher according to your talents. We also believe in one nation, that we are all in it together.
“One of the things I was most proud of doing was standing up at that first party conference and saying commitment to marriage was an important thing whether its between a man and a woman, a man and a man or a woman and a woman.
“I am proud I said it and I am proud of my party for supporting me.”
He indicated his would be a party of diversity in the future and boasted: “The Conservatives had the first woman prime minister, and we are bound to have the first black prime minister and the first gay prime minister.”
And speaking of the future for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people in Britain, he pledged to support changes in people’s every day life.
“The Labour government has made some important changes. I think we have further to go, not just in passing laws but in realising what we need is a cultural change,” he said.
Ben Summerskill, of the gay lobby group Stonewall, which is neutral on party-political issues, spoke after Cameron and described the Tory leader’s speech as “historic”: “We have heard the leader of the Conservative party say the words ‘Section 28’ and ‘sorry’.”
The event was held at the Paramount club, on the top of the Centre Point tower on New Oxford Street in central London. The Tory party faithful who attended paid £50 for a ticket for the drinks reception.
It is one of a number of political events happening around the London Pride festival. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is hosting a small gathering of the gay great-and-good in Downing Street on the morning of 4 July, Pride day itself.
Pink Paper is a media partner of Pride London.