After ministers warned that the amendment to the gay marriage bill establishing civil partnerships for heterosexual couples could “wreck” the legislation, Labour has opted not to support the amendment and instead table its own.
The Labour amendment, as outlined by Yvette Cooper on The World At One, would establish “an immediate consultation on opposite sex civil partnerships”, which, she said, could begin even before the bill has completed its parliamentary passage. Cooper went on to confirm that, while this is a free vote, she was recommending that MPs do not support the amendment tabled by former Tory minister Tim Loughton, which would introduce heterosexual civil partnerships. This was widely viewed by ministers as an attempt to “wreck” the bill, not least because Loughton and the other Tory MPs supporting it are opponents of gay marriage. Government sources had warned that it could delay the introduction of equal marriage until after the general election.
Labour had also suggested that the amendment could be used by the government as a convenient excuse to abandon the bill, an option ministers insisted they were not considering. But by opposing the Loughton amendment, Cooper said, Labour was ensuring that neither the government nor MPs could “wreck” the legislation.
With Labour and most Lib Dem MPs now planning either to abstain or vote against the amendment, any chance there was of it passing has ended.
Update: A Labour source has told The Staggers that Labour will abstain from voting on the Loughton amendment, meaning that its fate will likely depend on the Lib Dems (Cameron and other Tory supporters of gay marriage will vote against it).
Earlier today, Nick Clegg suggested that he would be prepared to vote against the amendment if necessary to save the bill. He said: “I don’t want anything to interfere with the central purpose of this legislation … The bottom line is that I will do whatever I judge is best to safeguard the bill and to make sure that it does not become hijacked by those whose ulterior motive is actually to discredit or to derail the legislation.”