A PUB landlord has sparked outrage with a sign stating that he would not serve gays in his bar.

Ronald Ware, the licensee of the Balaclava, in West Cornforth, County Durham, has put a hand-written sign behind the bar saying: "No homos or perverts that I know of will be served in here".

He said he had put it up "for a joke" but lesbian and gay campaign group Stonewall condemned the sign as showing "appalling ignorance".

Mr Ware said: "It was put up as a joke after one of them came in here. I did serve them that time.

"It's not that I won't serve them, or that I'm trying to bar them from the pub, I just don't particularly want them coming in here.

"You can see for yourself what the sign says. I don't want them in here because they make my blood crawl."

One woman from West Cornforth, who did not wish to be named, said she was disgusted by the sign.

She said: "As a member of the albeit small gay community in the village, I find this absolutely outrageous.

"If he had put up a sign saying there were no black people or disabled people allowed in the pub, then there would be outrage, as there should be over this.

"It is disgusting. There are a lot of people in the village, not just gays, who think it is wrong for the sign to be there at all."

A Stonewall spokesman said: "We deplore this kind of ignorant homophobia. It is appalling and it legitimises discrimination.

"It would clearly be illegal to discriminate against black people in this way and it is about time that lesbians and gay men are afforded the same protection."

He said Stonewall was in talks with the Government over introducing a wide-ranging Equality Act which would make this sort of discrimination illegal, but this was still at an early stage.

An EU directive has been agreed to make it illegal for employers to discriminate against lesbians and gay men at work but this does not apply to customers