Lord Browne calls on businesses to end 'intolerance to homosexuality'

Lord Browne, the former BP chief executive who resigned after it emerged he had lied to the High Court about a gay relationship, has told the BBC about his views on businesses and homosexuality.

The BBC revealed Lord Browne's views from the launch of Connect Out, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender network set up by Arup, the engineering and design consultants.

Lord Browne said: "My sense is that the business world remains more intolerant of homosexuality than other worlds such as the legal profession, the media and the visual arts… I am one of a handful of publicly gay people to have run a FTSE 100 company.

"In some industries, the situation is particularly bad. Among the many people I know in private equity, where I now work, fewer than 1pc are openly gay."

Lord Browne, who has not spoken publicly about sexuality in the workplace since his resignation in 2007, wants company chiefs to take a lead to end this discrimination.

"Hiding my sexuality did make me unhappy and, in the end, it didn't work," he said in an interview with Robert Peston, the BBC Business Editor.

"People guessed, and it was only a matter of time before it came out. I realise now that the people we dealt with certainly knew I was gay. Putin had files on everybody. But at the time I was trapped by the fear of exposure."

"In fact I was trapped for most of my adult life, unable to reveal who I was to the world. I lead a double-life of secrecy, and of deep isolation, walled off from those closest to me".

Lord Browne said he first realised he was gay in 1960 at boarding school. At the time homosexuality was illegal, though the law was abolished when he went to Cambridge.