UK slides from first to eighth place in five years in Europe LGBT+ rights ranking

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The UK has dropped another three places in a Europe-wide rank of the best countries for LGBT+ people, after being ranked first just five years ago.

Rainbow Europe, an index put together by campaign group ILGA-Europe, ranked how each European country’s laws and policies impacted on the lives of LGBT+ people, with zero indicating gross human rights abuses and 100 per cent the greatest degree of equality.

Between 2018 and 2019, the UK slid from fourth to seventh place.

In 2018, the UK scored 73 per cent and was tied with Finland and France just below the top three countries.

The 2019 ranking, announced in Oslo on Monday 13 May, saw the UK slide to 65 per cent, tied with Portugal.

Malta ranked first, followed by Belgium and Luxembourg. Norway, Denmark and Finland also ranked higher than the UK.

Azerbaijan, Turkey and Armenia were the bottom three countries for LGBT+ people in 2019, with a score of 3 per cent, 5 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.

Due to a shift in the number and weighing of categories included in the survey, several other countries that had formerly been seen as leaders of LGBT+ equality saw their overall percentages slip.

Germany, France and Norway also saw their percentages fall over the past 12 months.

“Sadly, this year, we see concrete evidence of roll-back at political and legislative levels in a growing number of countries,” said ILGA-Europe’s Executive Director, Evelyne Paradis. “There is no more time to waste.”

A spokeswoman for Britain’s Government Equalities Office said in an email: ”The UK has a proud record of promoting equality for LGBT people and we continue to be recognised as one of the leading progressive countries in Europe for LGBT rights.”

Additional reporting by agencies