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| Gay marriage bill: Labour to table new amendment on civil partnerships | Gay marriage bill: Labour to table new amendment on civil partnerships |
| (4 months later) | |
| The Labour leadership has moved to save the equal marriage bill by tabling its own amendment on civil partnerships for heterosexual couples – the area that had threatened to derail the entire measure. | The Labour leadership has moved to save the equal marriage bill by tabling its own amendment on civil partnerships for heterosexual couples – the area that had threatened to derail the entire measure. |
| Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said Labour would withdraw its support from an amendment tabled by Tory opponents of gay marriage and table its own amendment calling for an immediate consultation on extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples. | Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said Labour would withdraw its support from an amendment tabled by Tory opponents of gay marriage and table its own amendment calling for an immediate consultation on extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples. |
| Labour's earlier support for the amendment, due to be tabled by the former Tory children's minister Tim Loughton, had prompted a warning from Nick Clegg that the bill could be derailed. | Labour's earlier support for the amendment, due to be tabled by the former Tory children's minister Tim Loughton, had prompted a warning from Nick Clegg that the bill could be derailed. |
| Cooper confirmed that the Labour leadership, which is allowing its MPs a free vote, would abandon its support for Loughton and would instead table its own amendment to save the bill. | Cooper confirmed that the Labour leadership, which is allowing its MPs a free vote, would abandon its support for Loughton and would instead table its own amendment to save the bill. |
| The shadow home secretary told The World at One on Radio 4: "We would urge the government, we would urge the Liberal Democrats, we would urge backbenchers of all parties to support this [Labour] amendment to allow the bill to pass without the Tim Loughton amendment for the time being but also allowing an immediate consultation to start on the opposite-sex civil partnerships. On that basis we would recommend to people not to support the Tim Loughton amendment." | The shadow home secretary told The World at One on Radio 4: "We would urge the government, we would urge the Liberal Democrats, we would urge backbenchers of all parties to support this [Labour] amendment to allow the bill to pass without the Tim Loughton amendment for the time being but also allowing an immediate consultation to start on the opposite-sex civil partnerships. On that basis we would recommend to people not to support the Tim Loughton amendment." |
| Cooper added that she was acting to save the bill. She said: "It would allow the bill to keep making progress and to prevent either the government or some of the Tory backbenchers using this as an excuse to wreck the bill or delay the bill. We don't want anybody to use this as an excuse to wreck the bill, including the government. | Cooper added that she was acting to save the bill. She said: "It would allow the bill to keep making progress and to prevent either the government or some of the Tory backbenchers using this as an excuse to wreck the bill or delay the bill. We don't want anybody to use this as an excuse to wreck the bill, including the government. |
| "We want to make sure the government doesn't use this [the Loughton] amendment as an excuse to delay or wreck the bill because we know they have become very nervous about the infighting on the Tory benches. We know David Cameron's leadership is too weak to be able to push this through and to be able to get support on his own benches. We think that is a serious problem. But also we don't want to see gay couples who are desperate to set the date and get married find themselves at the mercy of this Tory infighting and this row which is not rational any more." | "We want to make sure the government doesn't use this [the Loughton] amendment as an excuse to delay or wreck the bill because we know they have become very nervous about the infighting on the Tory benches. We know David Cameron's leadership is too weak to be able to push this through and to be able to get support on his own benches. We think that is a serious problem. But also we don't want to see gay couples who are desperate to set the date and get married find themselves at the mercy of this Tory infighting and this row which is not rational any more." |
| The intervention by Labour, which follows a warning by the government that extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples could cost £4bn a year and delay the introduction of the bill until after the 2015 general election, means that the Loughton amendment will now struggle to succeed. Cooper said: "What we have put forward is a proposal to have an immediate consultation on opposite-sex civil partnerships. We think you could start that straight away. You don't even need to wait for the bill to go through." | The intervention by Labour, which follows a warning by the government that extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples could cost £4bn a year and delay the introduction of the bill until after the 2015 general election, means that the Loughton amendment will now struggle to succeed. Cooper said: "What we have put forward is a proposal to have an immediate consultation on opposite-sex civil partnerships. We think you could start that straight away. You don't even need to wait for the bill to go through." |
| Downing Street is deciding how to respond to Labour, which will probably have to table the amendment at a later stage because it is too late to table amendments for Monday's business. No 10 tried to see off the Loughton amendment by calling for a review of civil partnerships five years after the equal marriage bill enters law. This was rejected by Labour, which was highly dismissive of the government claims of an extra £4bn in costs. | Downing Street is deciding how to respond to Labour, which will probably have to table the amendment at a later stage because it is too late to table amendments for Monday's business. No 10 tried to see off the Loughton amendment by calling for a review of civil partnerships five years after the equal marriage bill enters law. This was rejected by Labour, which was highly dismissive of the government claims of an extra £4bn in costs. |
| Cooper said: "[Our amendment] would allow us to challenge some of the government's facts and figures which we do think are not very credible. I don't see why it would need to cost £4bn. That feels like a figure that has been plucked out of thin air." | Cooper said: "[Our amendment] would allow us to challenge some of the government's facts and figures which we do think are not very credible. I don't see why it would need to cost £4bn. That feels like a figure that has been plucked out of thin air." |
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