Newsnight host Evan Davis has spoken about the increased amount of drug use in the gay community.

The journalist and TV host – who replaced Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight last year – was discussing crime statistics which show gay and bisexual men are three times more likely to take a number of different drugs, compared to straight men.

He told Attitude: “The gay community has less discipline because it doesn’t have kids to go home to, and slightly more disposable income, and then add to that that when these things catch on they tend to have a momentum.

“Once gay people start taking drugs, they’ll take more drugs because it’s socially infectious and one person will take them, then another.

“I just think it’s something gay people have to watch out for.”

The presenter told PinkNews last summer: “You could not imagine a more comfortable place to be gay than the BBC.

“When you say ‘who is gay at the BBC?’ Most people immediately think of Graham Norton but there are a lot of gay people at the BBC in news and business coverage who don’t happen to sing about it.

“I think that’s a good thing and the battle for the next 10-15 years is to make being gay not a big deal.

“If you think too hard about it, you’ll feel that discrimination is core to your personality. So if you have squiffy eyes, as I do, then you will feel that rejection is due to your squiffy eyes. That being said, I’m sure there is discrimination.”