118 Tory MPs set to defy Cameron and trigger biggest Tory party rebellion in modern times
DAVID CAMERON is facing the biggest revolt of his premiership – and it’s all due to gay marriage.
Reports from Westminster this week revealed 118 Conservatives out of 303 have written to constituents indicating their unease with the Prime Minister’s plan to legalise gay marriage. If they all vote against, it would be the biggest Tory rebellion in modern times.
Among the 118 is gay MP Conor Burns. He said he ‘marvels’ at why David Cameron is prioritising same-sex marriage when there is no ‘clamour’ for it in the gay community.
Backbencher Douglas Carswell, another of those who will vote against, said: ‘I think you’ve got to have your head stuck in the Westminster bubble to think this is a priority.’
The vote could happen as early as January after Mr Cameron decided this week to ‘get it done and get it done quickly’.
They are an eclectic bunch – including a former breakfast TV presenter, a former top City investment manager, a Liverpool football fan and a gay friend of Margaret Thatcher.
But all have one thing in common: they are among the many Tory MPs who bitterly oppose David Cameron’s controversial policy to make gay marriage legal.
Even though the policy was not in the party’s election manifesto, his Old Etonian-dominated kitchen cabinet have told the PM that this legislation is a litmus test of his efforts to ‘decontaminate’ the Tories’ image on social issues.
Mr Cameron is honouring the commitment he made at the Tory conference last year when he said: ‘I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I’m a Conservative.’
Even though No 10 has signalled that it will be a free vote in the Commons, ministers will be under huge pressure to back the measure because the PM has staked so much personal authority on the change.
Indeed, last week George Osborne in an extraordinary move said he feared that the Tories risked losing the next general election if they don’t allow same-sex marriages.
However, recent polls suggest Cameron is in danger of alienating his core supporters. One poll this week found that 62 per cent of voters and 68 per cent of Tory supporters believe marriage should continue to be defined as a ‘life-long exclusive commitment between a man and a woman’.
A further 65 per cent said that plans to legalise gay marriage are ‘more to do with trying to make the Conservative Party look trendy and modern’ than a matter of conviction.
These findings are reinforced by a petition set up by the lobby group Coalition For Marriage (C4M) which has been signed by 612,000 people. It declares: ‘I support the legal definition of marriage which is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.’
The Prime Minister has exacerbated tension on the Tory benches by issuing what has been described as a ‘guillotine’ – rushing the Bill into the Commons to fast-track the reform.
It is C4M which has collated the correspondence from Tory MPs.
Among the 118 MPs is 40-year-old Conor Burns. The openly gay MP for Bournemouth West who is a close friend of Lady Thatcher, said in a local newspaper interview: ‘I marvel at why we’re bringing this forward. There is no clamour for this at all within the gay community.’
Right-winger David Jones takes a similar view. The solicitor, MP for Clwyd West, became Welsh Secretary in the last reshuffle and is regarded as a Cameron loyalist.
Yet the 60-year-old die-hard Liverpool fan made clear his opposition in an email to a constituent in March when he was already a junior minister. He said: ‘I believe marriage is an institution ordained to sanctify a union between a man and a woman. If a vote is called, I shall vote in accordance with my beliefs.’
His deputy at the Welsh Office is Stephen Crabb, 39. He said in an email earlier this year: ‘I share the view of a great many Christians and people of other faiths who have a strong conception of marriage as a union between a husband and wife. When it comes to re-defining the concept of marriage in law, I do not think that Parliament should seek to alter the current position.’
In a popularity poll of Tory MPs, Esther McVey, the new Minister for the Disabled, would be close to the top. The blonde former GMTV presenter, who has a large Catholic community in her Wirral West constituency and is a Catholic herself, wrote in a letter in July: ‘I remain concerned that re-defining marriage is unnecessary given the established legal rights, which effectively mirror marriage, for same-sex couples through civil partnerships. I presently intend to vote against the measure if it comes before Parliament.’
James Wharton, the 28-year-old MP for Stockton South, is the youngest Tory MP and one of the few Conservatives with a seat in the North East. But with a majority of only 332, he has one of the most marginal seats at Westminster and he rarely rebels against the Government.
But two weeks ago he wrote in an email about his concern about the ‘unique religious connotation’ of marriage and spoke of the risk of churches being forced to perform gay marriages under EU law.
‘I am minded to vote against when it comes before Parliament though I will of course look at the detail of the proposals when the time comes,’ he said.
By contrast, Andrea Leadsom, MP for South Northamptonshire, has a thumping majority of 20,000. A rising star, she was voted ‘backbencher to watch’ at this week’s Spectator magazine political awards.
She, too, opposes same-sex marriage. C4M said she sent an email to a constituent saying she was ‘not supportive’ of the law-change.
Another opponent is Gary Streeter, 55, who was a minister in the Major government and describes himself as a passionate supporter of Mr Cameron. The MP for South West Devon, a committed Christian who believes in faith healing, said in an interview in February: ‘I wish it were not happening …don’t try to tamper with the timeless concept and meaning of marriage, which for most of us does mean one man for one woman for life.’
The list of big-name Tories continues. Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury select committee, told a meeting of his local Tory association in Chichester, Sussex, that the proposals were ‘bonkers’.
He also said in a letter in August: ‘I believe that Parliamentary legislation should focus on those issues which matter to most people across the country: safeguarding their well-being and restoring the economy to health.’
One can only assume that the Tory whips have drawn Mr Cameron’s attention to this growing rebellion. In any case, it is now patently clear that the PM cannot write off opponents of his policy as the usual hardline right-wingers who have never been reconciled to his modernisation efforts.
After this week’s huge schism in the Church of England over the vote not to allow the appointment of women bishops, the Tory party is now facing its own equally bitter civil war.
