Marcus Bachmann has defended a clinic he ran which supported ex-gay therapy, saying it created a “safe place” for gay people.

In 2012, the husband of retiring Minnesota representative Michelle Bachmann faced repeated claims that his former clinic ran “pray the gay away” treatment, which he denied on numerous occasions.

Speaking recently as a guest on the radio show Understanding the Times, he defended himself and others who support ex-gay clinics as “people of ethics.”

He said: “Once the far-left understood that we were actually creating a safe place, a place where people who said ‘I have this issue with same-sex attraction, this desire. I’m a believer, I’m a person of faith and it’s conflicting with my values systems,'” he said.

“Anyone who would walk alongside and then encourage that person’s values systems, and their beliefs, and bring that in alignment, that is like blasphemous to the other side.

“How dare you even consider being involved in someone who has decided or is desiring that to influence in any way shape or form another side in the book on this one?”

Former ‘ex-gay’ activist Yvette Cantu Schneider has predicted that the ‘gay cure’ movement will be dead within a decade.

In 2010, Bachmann described gay people as “barbarians” who need to be “disciplined” during a radio interview.