Boris Johnson wins ruling over ban on Christian group's controversial 'gay cure' ads

The adverts mimicked a recent campaign by the gay-rights group Stonewall which used the strapline “Some people are gay, get over it!”.

A Christian group promoting “gay cure” therapies has lost its bid to sue Transport for London (TfL) after Boris Johnson refused to allow their adverts on London buses.

Sitting at the High Court, Mrs Justice Lang ruled that the Mayor of London did not abuse his position as chairman of TfL when he imposed the ban.

The judge did criticise TfL for the “procedurally unfair” way the ban was brought about after the transport network initially agreed to run the adverts, pictured above, from Core Issues Trust, an evangelical Christian group.

But she accepted that was outweighed by factors against allowing the ad, including that it would “cause grave offence” to those who were gay, and was perceived as homophobic, “thus increasing the risk of prejudice and homophobic attacks”.

Core Issues has been given permission to test her decision in the Court of Appeal.

Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill welcomed the ruling. “Had these voodoo ‘gay cure’ adverts appeared in the pages of The Spectator or The Daily Telegraph it’s unlikely there would have been complaints,” he said.

“It’s perfectly proper for a mayor to object to the use of such advertising in an iconic public setting.”