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Tim Farron has blasted “liberals” who believe his Christian views are “fair game” after he quit as Lib Dem leader in a row over whether gay sex is sinful.

In an exclusive Mirror interview, he said he was “staggered” at the backlash to his personal views, which led to him standing down just two years after winning his dream job.

Bitter arguments over Mr Farron’s Christian faith overshadowed the Lib Dems’ election campaign, which saw the party gain seats but its vote share fall.

He was dogged by questions over his opinions but dodged answering directly, before eventually being forced to say did not believe it was a sin.

(Image: PA)

But he resigned as leader in the aftermath of June’s poll, saying “remaining faithful to Christ” was incompatible with being boss.

He was succeeded by former Business Secretary Sir Vince Cable.

Now, as he prepares for his first party conference since standing down, Mr Farron has hit out at the lack of tolerance, including among some Lib Dems, for people’s personal opinions.

“I find it odd that liberals across the divide - and I don’t just mean Liberal Democrats but those who would call themselves ‘liberals’ - that people’s conscience is something that is fair game,” he said.

“The whole notion of a liberal is someone who defends others’ rights.

“It is not somebody who believes in compete assimilation.

“That (idea) is quite frightening, actually.

“I think that narrative, (that) society, that has moved at pace in recent times - the unwillingness to consider other people’s point of view, and to fight for people’s rights to privacy of conscience.”

He went on: “It would be interesting if people took the time to consider whether that is actually progress.”

Mr Farron realised the row was harming the Lib Dem campaign, where the party hoped to make gains from its fiercely anti- Brexit stance.

(Image: PA)

“The media was only interested in asking me questions about my faith and the ramifications of all that,” he said.

“My faith matters to me, it’s not just a cultural thing.

“The difficulty is when you’re the carrier of the message and people want to talk about something that is not your message, you’re potentially running the risk of doing the party long-term disservice.”

He beat former Health Minister Norman Lamb to the top job in 2015 in a surprisingly divisive leadership battle, where Mr Farron’s religious views were repeatedly scrutinised.

(Image: Matt Cardy)

His opinions were again thrust into the spotlight in the heat of a general election run-in.

The Lib Dems had suffered a ballot box battering in 2015, sinking to just eight MPs from 56.

While the party recovered to 12 seats in June’s snap election, its vote share slumped from 7.9% to 7.4%.

Following a post-poll inquest - and faced with the choice of having “to compromise what I believe or totally and utterly play the straight bat so often that it stops the party getting its message across” - he decided to walk away.

(Image: PA)

Admitting “that in a sense this is me making an excuse for not having seen this coming”, he denied leaving a job unfinished and said his mission had been to save the party.

“I was sad to do it but I am also very much at peace at having done it,” he said of quitting.

Mr Farron insisted he still believed he was the right person to lead the party after the 2015 election.

“I knew it was going to be a hard slog to save the party,” he said.

“In 2015 the party was almost wiped out so what we were doing was building from the rubble, and we did.”

He pointed to the bombshell 2016 Richmond Park by-election victory as his proudest moment as leader.

(Image: Getty)

He seized on the Brexit vote, adopting an unashamedly pro-EU position and signing up tens of thousands of new members.

But he admitted: “We knew it was Marmite to talk about Europe the way that we did. But we thought this party has got a future, but only if it was clear what is for.

“But the blancmange option would have been death.”

Lib Dems head to Bournemouth on Saturday for their annual seaside get-together - and a major flashpoint looms over a bid by the party’s “hard-core wing” to demand Britain stays in the EU, without another referendum.

(Image: E+)

Mr Farron warned members not to ignore last year’s vote to Leave the EU.

“I think they are quite wrong. Part of the explanation behind the loss of the referendum was that people did not trust politicians, people felt that their experience of being citizens of this country was a disappointing one and they wanted to show their anger and disgust with the political class. How much worse will things be if we just tell them they were wrong?” he said.

“I passionately believe that Britain should stay in the European Union ... but the thought that you can prevent (Brexit) by Parliament just telling people they got it wrong is counter-productive.

“You have got to take the people with you.”