THERE was a time when a politician's sexuality mattered. But, thankfully, society has moved on and it is no longer an issue if an MP is gay.

What is fundamentally important to voters, however, is whether an MP is honest. And Simon Hughes has not been honest.

Mr Hughes, a contender for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats, insisted yesterday that the way he had handled media pressure after admitting having gay relationships was a mark of his courage.

But the MP only decided to speak about his sexuality after being confronted with "pretty incontrovertible" evidence by a newspaper that he had phoned a gay chat line.

So was it courage or was it desperation to cling on to any hope he had of winning the race to lead his party?

We believe that Mr Hughes showed no more courage than Mark Oaten, who only got round to telling the truth when he was about to be exposed in a Sunday newspaper over his affair with a male prostitute. It is easy to be honest when there is really no alternative.

We share Mr Hughes' view that someone's sexuality is a private matter and should make no difference to their ability to stand for public office.

Had he restricted his comments to that view, instead of giving misleading answers to questions about his sexuality, he would not have created the doubts about his judgement and integrity which now exist.