SIMON HUGHES apologised last night for homophobic behaviour by Liberal Democrats in one of the most bitterly contested by-elections in decades.

Mr Hughes won his Bermondsey seat in 1983 against a backdrop of anti-gay campaigning designed to erode support for Peter Tatchell, the gay-rights campaigner who opposed him.

During the by-election, won by Mr Hughes with one of the biggest recorded swings against Labour, the Liberal Democrats presented him as “the straight choice” while Mr Tatchell was smeared by political rivals.

The Liberal Democrat leadership contender said on the BBC Newsnight programme last night: “I hope that there will never be that sort of campaign again. I have never been comfortable about the whole of that campaign, as Peter knows, and I said that to him in the past . . . Where there were things that were inappropriate or wrong, I apologise for that.”

Mr Tatchell, now a Green, said that it was time to forgive and forget and urged Liberal Democrats to make Mr Hughes their leader.

This month Mr Hughes denied being homosexual himself but said that there was no reason there should not be a gay prime minister.

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