Published: 2024-02-04 by, News Team

Conservative MP Freer Urges End to LGBTQ+ Debates Amidst Death Threats, Resigns Equalities Role

Last year, Freer, openly gay, urged his own party to cease "toxic" discussions surrounding LGBTQ+ matters, asserting that human rights are unequivocal in contemporary society.

Freer disclosed his sexual orientation to colleagues in 2013 during a parliamentary discourse on marriage equality, delivering a poignant speech that earned him a PinkNews Award the same year. Having entered into a civil partnership with his partner in 2007, the couple converted it into a marriage in 2015.

Representing Finchley and Golders Green since 2010, Freer has encountered numerous death threats, including being targeted by Ali Harbi Ali, the assailant who murdered Southend West MP Sir David Amess in 2021.

Following intelligence that Ali had surveilled his Finchley office before attacking Amess during a constituency surgery, Freer and his staff began wearing stab vests at public events. An arson attempt in December proved to be the tipping point.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Freer remarked, "There comes a point when the threats to your personal safety become too much." He recounted narrowly avoiding Ali's attempted attack, having changed his plans to be elsewhere that day. Freer noted, "He said he came to Finchley to attack me."

The 63-year-old parliamentary under-secretary for courts and legal services admitted that the possibility of being killed weighs heavily on his mind, with ongoing threats, including from a group identifying as Muslims Against Crusades, "about coming to stab me."

Freer secured his seat, formerly part of Margaret Thatcher’s constituency, with a slim majority of just over 6,500 in 2019. He served as an equalities minister in 2021 under former prime minister Boris Johnson but resigned the following year, citing the "atmosphere of hostility for LGBT+ people" fostered by Johnson’s government.

Honored with a second PinkNews Award in 2016 for 'Member of the Year,' Freer consistently advocated for LGBTQ+ issues in parliament. His efforts included advocating for gay male teenagers to receive the HPV vaccination, urging the removal of poppers from a blanket Government ban on 'legal highs,' and challenging NHS England's decision not to fund HIV-preventing PrEP drugs.

He joins several MPs who have announced they will not seek reelection in the upcoming general election, anticipated later this year.

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