Gay Tories defect to Labour in rights row

Anastasia Beaumont-Bott, former head of the Tory leader's gay campaign, accused the Conservatives of an "elaborately executed deception" on gay policy.

She said the party as a whole had not changed in its approach to gay people, with no mention of new rights in its manifesto.

At a London news conference, David Heathcote, 38, said he had quit the party after two years' membership and joined Labour because he felt "let down".

Both cited Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling's "gaffe" in asserting Christian bed and breakfast owners should be able to turn away gay couples as the trigger for their defection. Ms Beaumont-Bott, 20, who was a Conservative party member for three years and headed the party's lesbian and gay group for two years, said that as a teenage victim of homophobic bullying she was not prepared to be pushed around again.

She thought the Conservatives believed in freedom and being honest with the public.

"But it feels like there is a different message for every audience. I think we should think about what Mr Cameron's Conservatives stand for.

"I wanted to believe in the ideals he put forward – a Conservative party that believed in change. It's an elaborately executed, highly marketed, deception. A leopard does not change its spots and neither has the Conservative Party."