Jonathan Ross has praised George Michael – who was jailed this summer for drug driving following a car crash after using drugs – as a “much-needed alternative role model to young gay men”.

Mr Ross made his comments in an essay to promote the newly announced re-release of Michael’s Faith album.

Mr Michael was given an eight-week sentence in September following an incident in which he crashed his Range Rover into the exterior of a shop.

He had pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of drugs and possessing cannabis.

Mr Ross said that Mr Michael was a “strong, butch, unashamedly gay man” who showed that homosexual behaviour did not have to be “camp or feminised”.

And he said the singer was “uncompromisingly, perhaps even foolishly, his own man”.

Mr Ross – who ended his contract with the BBC in July – declared the singer-songwriter was a “genius” and “as relevant and important an artist today as he ever was”.

Faith is to be reissued on January 31. It had been due for release in September of this year but was delayed because of the singer’s legal woes.