A north London MP who resigned from Boris Johnson's government citing an “atmosphere of hostility for LGBT+ people” has backed Liz Truss to become the next prime minister.

In July, Finchley and Golders Green MP Mike Freer quit as minister for both exports and equalities, writing in his resignation letter he could no longer defended policies he "fundamentally" disagrees with.

Mr Freer has given his support to Liz Truss in her Tory leadership battle with Rishi Sunak.

Ms Truss is understood to have been at odds with Boris Johnson over his position of excluding trans people from a conversion therapy ban.

Asked about his support for Ms Truss in light of his resignation letter, Mr Freer said: "It’s very simple. As the equalities minister reporting to her, she was entirely supportive of a fully inclusive ban on conversion therapy, entirely supportive of the Safe to be Me Conference, gave me her backing to a programme of cross government work to improve the day to day lives of LGBT+ people - healthcare (including trans healthcare), housing, crime, reviews of historic injustices.

"She was also a firm supporter of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office funding work to pursue the decriminalisation of homosexuality in countries across the world."

In the course of their leadership campaigns, both Ms Truss and Mr Sunak have turned to "woke" issues to try to appeal to the right of the party.

Mr Sunak Has pledged a “manifesto for women’s rights”, including opposing biological men being allowed to compete against women in sport, and guidance for schools on how they teach issues of sex and gender.

He has vowed to review the 2010 Equality Act to stop the “woke nonsense” it has allowed to “permeate public life”.

He wants to preserve gendered words such as “woman” or “mother” by ensuring sex means biological sex in the legislation, and clarify that gender self-identification does not have legal force.

He has promised to protect free speech by amending the Public Sector Equality Duty, which requires public bodies to consider discrimination.

Ms Truss has spoken out in favour of single-sex spaces, telling a Tory party hustings audience that she backs a policy that guarantees schoolgirls can go to a toilet in a safe environment.

Her pledge for a “war on Whitehall waste” includes scrapping jobs aimed at increasing inclusion and diversity in the public sector.