Nigel Farage has defended the Brexit party MEP Ann Widdecombe, after she suggested science might one day produce an answer to being gay.

The Brexit party leader also claimed that “many many” Muslims had more extreme views on homosexuality than Widdecombe.

“These things are matters of conscience, I don’t think they are matters for party leaders to support or condemn,” Farage told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Tuesday.

He added: “Ann Widdecombe is a devout Christian and there is nothing wrong with that, in my opinion.”

Widdecombe was widely criticised after she appeared to endorse gay conversion therapy in an interview over the weekend.

Farage criticised the way she had been “hounded” by the media and politicians, and said they failed to show the same vitriol to people of other faiths.

He said: “If we start to attack and condemn people because of religious conscience we are going to cause all sorts of problems, not just with Roman Catholics but with many many others of Muslim faith who have even stronger feelings on this subject than Ann Widdecombe.

“What’s intolerant is when the pack mentality decides that a certain group of people have a view that is not acceptable in the mainstream and they should be hounded out of public office for having a different point of view.”

He added: “Let’s have more people in public life who’ve got their own views on things rather than being told what they should think by mainstream media or their party leaders.”

When it was pointed out to him that homosexuality was a matter of fact rather than conscience, Farage said: “People’s views on it are a matter of conscience.”

And in reference to parents who have objected to school lessons about same-sex relationships, he added: “We’ve seen outside those schools in Birmingham, Muslim parents protesting.”

Farage said he was hoping to meet Donald Trump at some point during his state visit to the UK. “I’ll be waiting for the call this afternoon,” he said.

Q&A Itinerary: What will Trump be doing during his UK state visit? Show After arriving in the UK on Air Force One on Monday 3 June, US president Donald Trump will be formally welcomed in a ceremony in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. It will be attended by the Queen and Prince Charles. The president will then attend a private lunch at the palace, which is expected to be attended by Prince Harry, but not his wife, who Trump recently described as 'nasty'. Following a wreath-laying ceremony in Westminster Abbey, Donald Trump will join Prince Charles for an afternoon tea at Clarence House. The Queen, Prince Charles and Prince Harry will then host a state banquet in the evening, which will be attended by prominent US citizens who live in the UK, as well as political and civic leaders. On Tuesday 4 June the visit includes a breakfast meeting with Prince Andrew, and then talks and a press conference with prime minister Theresa May at Downing Street. On the Tuesday evening Trump hosts a dinner at the residence of the US ambassador. On Wednesday 5 June Trump will take part in commemoration services in Portsmouth to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The day ends with the Queen formally bidding farewell to the US president. Trump’s entourage will also include two identical seven-seat black armoured limousines nicknamed ‘The Beast’, and a number of presidential helicopters. The president has at his side at all times one of five rotating military aides who carry the nuclear ‘football’ which can trigger a missile strike - equipped with communication tools and a book with prepared war plans. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/X90178

He also praised the way the US president had conducted himself on the trip, despite Trump’s insults to the London mayor, Sadiq Khan.

Farage said Trump “behaved with great dignity yesterday. He gave a speech that said all the right things.”

He claimed Trump was more popular in the UK than Labour and Conservative leaders.

He said: “People in this country are seeing an American president who got elected making a series of promises and actually carrying them out. And the contrast between that and the two parties here who write things in manifestoes that they never intend to deliver, is also one of the reasons why Trump’s popularity is much higher now than it was back at the time he was elected.”

And he warned Boris Johnson that he would be punished in the polls if he were elected as Conservative leader and then reneged on his promise to leave the EU with or without a deal on 31 October.

Farage said: “If Boris wins and he marches his troops up to the top of the hill with the expectation that we are leaving on 31 October and then we don’t and they are marched back down again. In those circumstances in a future general election the Brexit party would produce a result even more stunning than it did in the European elections.”