Dr Patrick Williams, chair of Pride London has stood down, after calls for the whole board to resign over this year’s event.

London has had to scale back its World Pride celebrations on 7 July due to a cash crisis.

The event had been projected to bring in over a million people for the biggest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender event the British capital had ever seen.

But it had to be scaled back at the last minute and now no floats, buses or cars will be allowed in the parade through central London and the street party in the gay district of Soho has been axed.

This sparked a protest with gay scene leaders, including G-A-Y club boss Jeremy Joseph, launching a petition demanding the resignation of the whole Pride London board immediately.

Gay Star News reported rumors of Williams resignation yesterday. Unconfirmed reports suggest that his departure was the matter of some negotiation.

He has now quit as chair. Technically he remains a trustee of Pride London, which is a charity as documents have to be filed before he can leave that role, but GSN has been told he is no longer involved.

Joseph said: ‘I am very pleased [by the resignation]. But it is wrong to make somebody a scapegoat and it shouldn’t just be Patrick who goes.’

Joseph believes there is still ‘a lot’ which is ‘unsaid and unknown’ about what went wrong and has called for a formal inquiry, including an investigation of Pride London’s accounts.

Long-standing board member Tony Hughes has taken over as interim chair.