Caroline Ansell received a donation from a "gay cure" charity and is a member of a group of churches accused of "healing" LGBT people – the same group attended by another Tory candidate.

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A Conservative candidate hoping to return to parliament at the general election accepted a donation from a Christian organisation that has funded "gay cure" events and is a member of a group of churches accused of trying to "heal" LGBT people, BuzzFeed News can reveal. Caroline Ansell, who won Eastbourne with a slim majority of 733 in 2015, received funds in the form of an intern, for four days a week, from the Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) charity.

According to the registers of MP's interests – the official documents in which politicians declare their donations – Ansell accepted the CARE intern in September 2016, and they will remain in post until July 2017. The total value of this gift is stated as £8,470, as the intern is "voluntary" (unpaid) but receives a £770 per month bursary.

That means she accepted the funding four years after CARE was exposed for bankrolling a 2009 conference in London for therapists and clergy to learn how to convert LGBT people to heterosexuality – a practice known as "conversion therapy", which is universally condemned by Britain's mental health bodies. Advertisement

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When CARE's sponsorship of the event became public in 2012, many of the 20 MPs who had interns funded by it – including Tim Farron, now the Liberal Democrat leader – distanced themselves from the organisation and vowed not to receive further interns. The revelation comes a week after another Tory candidate’s links to “gay cure” organisations were uncovered by BuzzFeed News.

Ansell is also a member of the evangelical Kings Church in Eastbourne – part of the same group of anti-LGBT equality churches as the King's Arms Church in Bedfordshire, which was exposed in 2010 for attempting to "cure" and cast "demons" out of gay and transgender people. She also confirmed her membership of the Kings Church Eastbourne in the register of members' interests. When Ansell was elected in 2015, the Kings Church in Eastbourne celebrated on its Facebook page: "We now have an MP in our church! Huge congratulations to Caroline Ansell for winning in Eastbourne. So proud of you! #CitizensSeries." Last Saturday, BuzzFeed News detailed how the Conservative candidate in Hove and Portslade, Kristy Adams, had links to the King's Arms Church in Bedford. Following that report, a woman came forward about what happened to her there. Advertisement

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"There was an occasion where two of my close friends in the church came into my room and prayed over me; to heal me from my sexuality," AJ Paterson told Brighton and Hove's GScene magazine. "There was a clear direction from the church that homosexuality was a sin and that it needed to be prayed for... They were trying to heal me of my ‘gay-ness’.” One of the most prominent leaders and speakers at Kings Church, Andrew Wilson (who preaches at the Eastbourne branch and Kings Church London) has claimed that he no longer experiences "same-sex attraction". The use of the phrase "same-sex attraction" (rather than gay) is a hallmark of conversion therapy and widely uttered among its advocates and also conservative Christians who think LGBT people should abstain from sex. A video of Wilson speaking onstage at the Eastbourne branch of Kings Church – featured on its website – shows him telling the congregation, "The God of the Bible...made humans to have sex in one context only and that is in marriage between one man and one woman...no exceptions." Advertisement

Dan Kitwood / Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Share on Pinterest Share on Pinterest Pinterest Pinterest Caroline Ansell with David Cameron in 2015