rime minister David Cameron hosted his second Downing Street reception for the LGBT community on Wednesday night and said the government would continue to pressure African governments on gay rights.

Famous guests at Number 10 included Billie Jean King, Gareth Thomas and Ben Cohen, who mingled with LGBT campaigners, volunteers and community leaders.

Other attendees were G-A-Y founder Jeremy Joseph, Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill and Hollyoaks star Kieron Richardson.

After a performance by the London Gay Men’s Chorus, Mr Cameron kicked off his speech with a risqué joke about entertaining two queens in 48 hours – Queen Elizabeth, who visited Downing Street yesterday, and Sir Ian McKellen, who was due to attend the event but did not.

To laughter, he said: “It’s great to have this reception here today. I was just thinking, someone told me that if Sir Ian McKellen was here, I could say I had the Queen and Prince Phillip here for lunch yesterday, Sir Ian [McKellen] today. Who can say they’ve had two of Britain’s most prominent queens over in 48 hours?”