Whatever Tim Farron thinks about homosexuality, his view on Brexit is more important

When I first heard that Tim Farron had dodged some routine question about religion and sexuality – the quip that “we’re all sinners” being a predictably flimsy defensive line – I knew this would run and run. On the Peston on Sunday show he compounded the error by failing to close things down with a simple endorsement of gay sex. Beforehand, he had made some ground up in the Commons when he said, in answer to a direct question from out MP Nigel Evans, that being gay is not a sin. It was not enough. Now he is having the more obscure aspects of his voting record and public pronouncements gone through in excruciating detail.

The term “homophobe” being applied to Farron is absurd, but it seems to be gaining traction. No sooner had he managed to close down one diversion – whether he’d prop up a minority Tory or Labour government – than a new and vastly less justified one comes along to derail his promising campaign, and thus set back his chances of getting Sir Vince Cable and others into the Commons. There’s a lot at stake.

It seems to rest on that theological distinction about being a practising homosexual or just having the proclivities, mirroring the wider debate in the Anglican Church. Yet it has always been precisely that, a nice distinction in the old fashioned sense of the word nice, and has very little to do with practical politics. I’m fortunate enough to be free of most religious dogma, and have always been relaxed, if not envious, of the sexual adventures of others. I can’t understand why Farron can’t just say that he’s not bothered about what folk do with their bits, or some more statesmanlike formulation of that sentiment. I cannot believe he is bothered. Even if he privately believes that gay sex is a sin this isn’t a party issue – MPs vote with their consciences whatever their party leaders tell them.

If anything, I have been a little more disturbed about Farron’s Europhilia than his alleged homophobia precisely because he doesn’t seem homophobic, but he is a bit evangelical about the EU. The key policy he has got precisely right is the demand for a people’s vote on the eventual terms of Brexit. Those of us who voted Leave did not necessarily do so for hard Brexit at any cost. Not if it means Scottish independence, or abandoning Gibraltar or, indeed more Troubles in Ireland. Not if it means the death of the City and the car industry. Not if it means higher taxes and worse public services. It may be there’s a deal coming that pragmatic Leavers and Remainers can agree is better than EU membership, but we have a perfect right to have a say.

Farron and Jeremy Corbyn should be helping the voters “join the dots” here, on the NHS, schools and taxes – and Brexit. For it is Brexit that means Philip Hammond needs to cut borrowing and thus raise our taxes and pull back on public services, because hard Brexit would hit the economy hard in the short to medium term. These are not separate issues but intimately linked. The economy is the only territory where general elections are won and lost. Not, I have to say, LGBT+ rights. Farron needs to escape from the whole gay thing and fast.