The British government’s controversial gay
marriage legislation returns to the Commons today with Tory MPs and
activists deeply split over the issue.
The move has been championed by David Cameron
but he has faced Conservative opposition at all levels from the
grassroots to the cabinet .
A group of more than 30 current and former
local party chairmen warned that the plans would drive Tory voters to
the UK Independence Party and make a Conservative election victory in
2015 impossible.
Bob Woollard, chairman of the Conservative
Grassroots group which organised the protest letter to the prime
minister said: “Same sex marriage is really a tipping point, a
bellwether issue if you like — people have just said ‘I’ve had enough,
I’m off, I will never vote Conservative again’.
“Scores and scores and scores of people that we
have all spoken to, probably hundreds of thousands of people have said:
‘I’ve had enough, that’s it now, we can’t cope with this so-called
modernisation agenda. We are not voting Conservative again until this
bill is scrapped, defeated in the House of Lords, kicked into the long
grass or until there’s a change of leadership’.”
But a rival letter, signed by more than 100
Tory activists, called for Conservative MPs to “deal with the Bill then
move on together as a party”.
The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill will be
debated over two days, with its third reading — the final hurdle in the
Commons — tomorrow. Tory former minister Tim Loughton will attempt to
amend the legislation to allow heterosexuals to have the same right to
civil partnerships as gay couples.
He highlighted a ComRes survey of 159 MPs from
across the parties which found 73 per cent agreed that civil
partnerships should be extended to heterosexuals “in the interests of
equality” if gay marriage is legalised.
Mr Loughton said: “Far from being a ‘wrecking
measure’ some of the strongest support for my amendment to extend civil
partnerships comes from the biggest supporters of same sex marriage in
the Labour and Lib Dem parties.
“If the government think it is right to extend
marriage to everyone then it has to be right to extend civil
partnerships to everyone too. This can only be good for improving
stability for many more of the near three million opposite sex couples
who currently choose to cohabit but are in no formally recognised
relationship.
“Giving them the opportunity for the rights and
responsibilities that go with civil partnerships has also to be a good
thing for more stability for children which is enormously important at a
time of rising family breakdown.”
Mr Loughton is also supporting amendments which
will give registrars the option to opt-out of holding same-sex unions
on faith grounds and also protect teachers if they refuse to promote gay
marriage.
Labour’s equalities team, led by shadow home
secretary Yvette Cooper, is set to support Mr Loughton’s amendment on
heterosexual civil partnerships.
Ms Cooper warned on Sky News’ Murnaghan
programme that it would be a “real problem” if the legislation “gets
lost in the vortex of the Tory infighting”.
With free votes for MPs, Mr Loughton’s
amendment could pass despite the opposition of ministers. Culture
secretary Maria Miller has tabled rival amendments to allow a review on
extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples, but only five
years after gay marriage has been introduced. It would pave the way for
civil partnerships to be extended, or, if demand has plummeted, scrapped
altogether.
A Government source said Mr Loughton’s
amendment would cost taxpayers £4 billion as a result of extra pension
liabilities and could delay the introduction ofgay marriages by up to 24
months.
The source added that it “undermines marriage
by creating a two-tiered system”.
If the Bill clears the Commons
tomorrow it will head to the Lords, where fierce opposition to the
proposals is expected.