Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has urged his party to continue to fight against same-sex marriage, despite admitting defeat himself last year.

Christie had stringently opposed same-sex marriage in New Jersey, but abandoned his court challenge in October after a ruling from the state’s Supreme Court struck down its same-sex marriage ban.

He conceded at the time: “Chief Justice Rabner left no ambiguity about the unanimous court’s view on the ultimate decision in this matter when he wrote, ‘same-sex couples who cannot marry are not treated equally under the law today’ … therefore, same-sex marriage is the law.”

However, he has now urged other Republicans to continue fighting as long as possible.

He said: “I don’t think that there’s going to be some major referee who’s going to say now it’s time to stop… certainly I’m not going to, because these are opinions that I feel strongly about.

“The country will resolve this over a period of time, but do I think it’s resolved now? No.”

When questioned about his own state, he said: “Yeah, it is a settled issue in New Jersey.

“When I know that I’ve been defeated you don’t bang your head against a wall and spend taxpayer money to do it.

“Absent a change in the legislature, I think at the moment it’s settled law in New Jersey.”

His comments may be surprising to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who claims that Republicans aren’t fighting against same-sex marriage at all.

New Jersey was the 14th US state to legalise equal marriage.