It is just months since same sex-marriage became legal in the UK, a landmark ruling that David Cameron claimed sent the message that that people are equal “whether gay or straight”, but despite the passing of this liberating law, 16 per cent of people – almost one in six – think that gay sex should be made illegal.

A new survey of British sexual behaviour, which used a sample of 1,052 UK adults and carried out by The Observer, found this conservative sentiment peaks in London and the south-east, where 21 per cent of people think gay sex should be illegal.

The data shows that attitudes have been becoming increasingly liberal however, as the proportion of people who think that homosexual sex should be illegal has dropped by eight per cent since 2008, when The Observer last carried out the survey.

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