• Conservative leader decides to stay in his constituency
• Boris Johnson comes under fire for performance at Gay Pride reception

David Cameron has pulled out of attending Saturday’s Gay Pride festival in London, saying he needs to attend an event in his Oxfordshire constituency.

Two months ago, the Daily Mail reported that Cameron was going to be the first Tory party leader to appear on an openly gay platform by attending the annual street festival celebrating London’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Cameron, who has been keen to promote the Conservatives as an inclusive party, was set to follow in the footsteps of Boris Johnson, who turned up for Pride last year, just weeks after being elected mayor of London. He was persuaded to wear a pink stetson for the occasion.

The Tory press office confirmed Cameron would not now be attending due to a constituency event, but stressed he would be attending a private event marking Gay Pride this evening.

While the Tory leader will be a no-show, Johnson has lauded the fact that Sarah Brown, the wife of the prime minister, will attend. However, Johnson will not be present this year because the event clashes with his son’s birthday.

Johnson today faced criticism for leaving high-profile gay activist Peter Tatchell off the guest list for a Pride reception which took place at City Hall last night.

There was also criticism of Johnson’s speech, which some attendees felt lacked the necessary gravitas.

The Homovision site complained that a “bumbling speech by a clown-like politician” was not what the gay community needed at a time when hate crimes were becoming increasingly violent.

“The fact that some of Britain’s leading gay activists were prevented from attending the event, while Boris got away with making a half-hearted attempt at a speech – punctuated with broken Latin and Greek quotes that no one in the room had a clue what it meant – is a warning sign to all of us.”

Johnson, wearing a checked shirt and light grey suit, joked that he looked as if he was about to hotfoot it to a gay disco in the 1970s. He said he didn’t want to use the word tolerance, but wanted to stress the importance of the lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender community. The jovial mayor joked to his audience that he had cut the number of deputy mayors by half as part of his drive to make economies of scale, a reference to Ian Clement, the deputy mayor who quit Johnson’s mayoral administration last week after irregularities in his expenses surfaced.