Wes Streeting deluged with homophobic hate mail since becoming defence secretary

The Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, has said he faced more online homophobia in the weeks since he was appointed than in his whole life.

Streeting said he had received an "unbelievable volume" of abuse because people "couldn't cope" with the idea of an openly gay person leading the armed forces.

In an interview with the Iain Dale All Talk podcast at the Edinburgh Fringe, he said his new role was an opportunity for him to demonstrate strength and "to challenge the sort of stereotype that clearly persists in dark corners of the internet".

Homosexuality started being decriminalised in the UK in 1967, but a ban continued in the armed forces until 2000.

Speaking on the podcast, Streeting said: "I have experienced more online homophobia in the last three weeks than I have in my entire life.

"An unbelievable volume, because people cannot cope with the idea that a gay person might lead the armed forces of the United Kingdom."

"Being the first openly gay defence secretary has been almost entirely unremarked upon in the media," he added.

"And I think, 'great, here we are in the third decade of the 21st century it doesn't matter, brilliant'. But of course online it matters to a lot of people.