OXFORD MP Layla Moran says she was forced to come out as pansexual by a national newspaper which was hounding people she knew for details about her private life.

Ms Moran, who is the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon and one of the favourites to take over the party's leadership, said she had been waiting to tell her grandmother about her first relationship with a woman, when a national newspaper threatened to out her first.

She told the Oxford Mail: “During the election there were people talking to me about my relationship. There was a newspaper contacting people I knew.

“Get the memo, it’s 2020 for goodness' sake.

“We have got to the point [in the relationship] where we have met the family, but we haven’t told my grandmother, I was going to wait until the summer – it’s a great, but relatively new relationship – why should I have to talk to her right now? I shouldn’t have to.

“I thought, 'it’s a new year, I have had time to think it through' and I felt ready. Sod that newspaper.

“They can’t control me and how they are going to run this story. This is my story and I am going to take control of it. I’m very proud and if anyone is going to do this story, it’s me.”

Being pansexual differs from bisexuality, where people are attracted to more than one gender, because pansexuals describe not recognising gender as part of their attraction to a potential partner.

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The 37-year-old MP started her relationship with former Lib Dem media chief Rosy Cobb in the summer, after they met at work.

However Ms Cobb has since been suspended by the party after she was accused of doctoring a fake email to force a website to suppress a story by political news site openDemocracy about the Lib Dems.

The party was accused of selling voter data for £100,000 to the Remain campaign during the 2016 referendum.

However, it denied the claim and reportedly produced an image of the email it said was sent to the website's news team before the story was published, setting out its position in a 'right to reply'.

The Lib Dems claimed it had been ignored went so far as instructing lawyers to demand an apology, but it was later alleged that the email was forged and had never actually been sent - it was claimed to have been dated before openDemocracy's reporter had even got in touch for comment.

Ms Moran is now in a 'really happy and loving relationship' with Ms Cobb, she said.

But despite the smiles, she was told by colleagues in Westminster who found out about the relationship, that it wouldn't be a good 'career move' to announce it.

Ms Moran said it wouldn’t have been the same if she was in a heterosexual relationship with a man, adding: “People were insinuating that we should split up and I couldn’t believe it – it shouldn’t have anything to do with my job.

“It’s really bizarre.”

Ms Moran, who has not ruled herself out of the running to be the next leader of the Lib Dems after Jo Swinson lost her seat in the December elections, criticised Parliament as a ‘weird and backwards’ place for the LGBTQ+ community.

She said: “At the moment, it’s just not representative.

“It can be very backwards looking.

“It’s clear that equality is not achieved. Maybe I was naive.

“I hope we get to the point in society when we just don’t care.”

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Since coming out, on Thursday night, Ms Moran has been ‘overwhelmed with support’.

She shared a selfie of her and Ms Cobb writing: “2020 is a new decade and a new path in my journey. Last year I fell in love with a wonderful woman. Something I’d never even considered before. Now I am just happy.”

The post was flooded with thousands of comments, even more likes and hundreds of retweets.

But social media isn’t the only support she’s had.

She said: “I was in the pub yesterday when a constituent came up to me and said it [her new relationship] shouldn’t be a story and gave me a handshake.

“I’m so grateful to everybody who has shown support.

“My favourite comments so far have been the people who say ‘so what’ and ‘who cares’.

“It’s quite a scary thing to do and so private so I’m particularly glad of the support.

“I have to thank each and every one of the voters who have given me support, I am so relieved and so happy.”