Former lesbian Tory activist says she will vote Labour

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A former Conservative Party activist who was the chief of the party’s gay group LGBTory has said she will vote Labour in the general election.

Anastasia Beaumont-Bott, who left the party acrimoniously two years ago, told the Independent she felt guilty for telling people to vote for David Cameron.

Ms Beaumont-Bott, 20, told PinkNews.co.uk she was advised by the Labour Party to contact the media but said she was not officially connected to Labour.

She said her reason for coming forward now was that she was angered by shadow home secretary Chris Grayling’s remarks at the weekend about B&B owners being allowed to bar gay couples.

Ms Beaumont-Bott also claimed she had been subjected to homophobic insults by grassroots Tory members and activists in Conservative Future, which is the youth arm of the party. She said she did not report the alleged homophobia.

She left Conservative Future in 2008, citing “accusations, lies, and gossip” being spread about her.

Since leaving the party, she has become a researcher at the BBC and is completing a degree at Queen Mary University London.

She told The Independent: “I feel guilty because as a gay woman affected by LGBT rights I am on record saying you should vote Conservative, and I want to reverse that. I want to go on record to say don’t vote Conservative. I’d go as far to say that I’ll vote Labour at this general election.”

A Conservative Party spokeswoman told the newspaper: “Any suggestion that Chris Grayling is against gay rights is wholly wrong – it is a matter of record that he voted for civil partnerships.

“He also voted in favour of the legislation that prohibited bed and breakfast owners from discriminating against gay people.”

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