London Mayor Boris Johnson has been accused of “scaremongering” after urging gay voters to back Brexit because their rights are under threat across much of the European Union (EU). Mr. Johnson — one of the most senior and doubtless the most prominent of Tory Brexit campaigners — was lending his support to the new Out and Proud campaign group, recently established to make the LGBT case for voting to leave the EU in June’s referendum. In a video address played to the group’s first meeting Mr. Johnson celebrates Britain having “the most progressive attitudes towards LGBT issues anywhere in the world,” describing it as “a wonderful thing to see.” He then asks “did those rights, those freedoms, that spirit come from the EU? Or did it come form people campaigning in our courts, our parliament?” “It was us,” he states, “the British people that created that environment of happiness and contentment for LGBT people and it is absolutely vital that we fight for those rights today because they are under threat in Poland, in Hungary, in Romania and other parts of the EU where they are not protected in the way they are in our country.” The Liberal Democrat peer and gay rights campaigner Lord Paddick attacked Mr. Johnson’s claims