Gay actor Rupert Everett has provoked a furious backlash after saying that he 'can't think of anything worse than being brought up by two dads'.

His comments will likely offend and surprise couples such as Elton and David because he has previously championed gay rights since coming out of the closet 20 years ago. Gay rights campaigners have rounded on the 53-year-old, with one saying he should 'get out a bit more'.

Everett, an army major's son, has in the past rubbished the idea of homosexuals having children through a surrogate. But the latest remarks, made in The Sunday Times Magazine, are the first to criticise the ability of gays to be good parents. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of gay and lesbian pressure group Stonewall, said: 'Rupert should get out a little bit more to see the facts for himself. There is absolutely no evidence that the kids of gays parents suffer in the way they are being brought up or in how they develop.'

Elton and David, whose son Zachary will be two on Christmas Day, are not thought to have responded as yet to the comments. The couple were shortlisted in 2011 for the title of celebrity dad of the year. Earlier this year, Everett said 'the key thing was that Zachary is loved and supported and that he knows there are other children in the same situation.' Same-sex households are on the increase and in some American states it is around one per cent of the total. Some studies have also suggested that those children do better than ones born to heterosexual couples.

Everett, who played a gay man who made Madonna pregnant in the film The Next Best Thing, admitted in the interview that his mother Sara 'still wishes I had a wife and kid'. The actor, who is currently starring as Oscar Wilde in The Judas Kiss at the Hampstead Theatre, has previously said if he was going to be a parent he would adopt or foster. The issue of gay parents flared up in January 2012 when then U.S. Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said children 'are better off with a father in jail than being raised by lesbian parents'.

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