Gay rights campaigners are urging an Enfield politician to change his opposition to same-sex marriage and disassociate himself from a far-right Christian charity.

Enfield Southgate MP David Burrowes (Con) joined other politicians today to launch the Coalition for Marriage, which opposes the Government’s plan to legalise same-sex marriage.

But after the MP said last month that the issue was not something “people are hammering us on the doorstep to do something about”, treasurer of Enfield Southgate Conservatives, Phillip Dawson, set up a Facebook group to call for Mr Burrowes to listen to the views of his constituents.

Mr Dawson, who is gay, said: “Of course David is allowed his own opinion and I have no intention of saying otherwise – I set up the group because he said nobody cared about it.

“It’s something that people care about very strongly and I think most people would say there should be equality of choice.

“If you want to get married you should be able to and unknowingly I think in saying that you shouldn’t change the law there’s an implication that inequality is fine.”

More than 100 people have joined the Facebook group to send Mr Burrowes a message on gay marriage, but the politician, who is the parliamentary chairman of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, said the law should not be changed.

He said: “My views are that the values of marriage should be between a man and a woman and that is something which is set out in statute hundreds of times – if you change the shape of marriage then you change its purpose and risk changing the meaning of it.

“I don’t in any way challenge the fact that people will want to change the law and it’s important that this is a debate that is done with respect and we respect people’s views.”

Mr Burrowes, who said he had received a death threat since publicly declaring his views, has voted strongly against furthering gay rights since being elected in 2005.

Gay rights charity Stonewall gave him a seven per cent score in a study of pro-equal rights MPs at the last General Election.

The MP’s links to Christian charity CARE have also been questioned by members of the Facebook group. The charity, which opposes gay marriage and sponsored a London event in 2009 which offered “healing” for gay people, pays £5,500 in sponsorship for an intern to work in Mr Burrowes’ office every other year.

CARE denies it is a lobby group and the interns are part of its Leadership Programme, which places people with influential Christians in public life to gain experience.

Mr Burrowes denied that by accepting the intern he had condoned the group's views or that the organisation had any influence over him, and said “at no time” had any intern tried to lobby him on any issue.

He added: “My involvement with CARE is simply that it provides candidates of good quality to learn about being in public life – these people have provided an excellent service.”