MP Richard Drax: gay bill is ‘stupid mistake to try and be populist’

They plan to support rebel amendments to the bill, which was approved in the House of Commons in February despite almost half of Conservative MPs opposing it.

South Dorset MP Richard Drax said the bill would “undermine” marriage and he would be speaking and voting for several amendments.

“No one asked for this gay marriage bill. The gay lobby didn't ask for it and no one asked for it. We are not happy bunnies,” he said.

“This is a stupid mistake to try and be populist. We've all got gay friends, No one's got a problem with it whatsoever. That's the way life is and that's fine.

“However, marriage in all our minds is one of the bedrocks of our society. We've been brought up to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman and you cannot change that.

“While I totally respect that other people are different and have different lives and loves, to undermine a large part of our whole being I think is one step too far. I think it's totally unnecessary.”

But Annette Brooke, Liberal Democrat MP for Mid-Dorset and North Poole, said she had supported the bill after a “long time thinking it through very carefully”.

She said: “I’m nearly 66, I’ve been married for nearly 43 years to the same person but I’m tolerant of others and different lifestyles. At the end of the day it’s a loving, stable relationship which is the most important thing.

“The vote is a matter of conscience and it’s very much down to the individual but I really have pondered it greatly.  So many people of conscience who are very dear to me have opposing views.”

Equalities minister Maria Miller has described some of the amendments tabled in the Commons as a “complicated distraction”. She said she wanted same sex couples to be able to marry as early as next summer.

The main "wrecking ammendment" is one that would allow heterosexual couples to have a civil partnership, a much more complicated arrangement with impact on pensions that could delay the passage of the main bill by up to twe years.

The Liberal Democrats and Labour support the bill and their support saw it passed in February despite much opposition in the Tory ranks.

In Dorset, Tory MPs Chris Chope, (Christchurch), Bob Walter (North Dorset), Robert Syms (Poole) and Richard Drax (South Dorset) all voted against the bill. Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and Poole), Conor Burns (Bournemouth West) and Desmond Swayne (New Forest) all voted in favour.

Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East) did not vote on the main bill.

Desmond Swayne - who has said he is “deeply ashamed” of some of his past pronouncements on gay rights - told the Echo then he was tired of the flood of emails and letters on the issue.

“The number of people who write to me quoting Leviticus, 'It's an abomination for a man to lie down with another man'. If you read the same passage, it's also an abomination to eat shellfish, punishable by death, or to have a haircut, punishable by death, or to wear a coat of more than one cloth,” he said.

He said today: "I’ve moved from someone who voted down the line against every single liberalisation to having changed my mind on this essential question."
 

He said he told people who complained about undermining marriage: “This isn’t going to affect your marriage. It isn’t going to affect my marriage in any way.  This will be a source of joy and celebration to those few people who it will affect and  it  won’t make a blind bit of difference to anyone else any more than civil partnerships did.
 

“I voted against civil partnerships. They didn’t cause the destruction of society that we were threatened with.”

On Sunday, 34 current and former local Conservative Association chairmen delivered a letter to Downing Street opposing the bill.

We are opening comments on this story for a short time this morning. Please make sure you read our house rules for commenters and our terms and conditions before you post. Thanks. The Echo has asked the county's other MPs for comment and will update the story as and when they respond.