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Margaret Thatcher takes office in 1979
Margaret Thatcher takes office as PM in 1979. Twelve years earlier she had supported the legalisation of homosexuality. Photograph: Associated Press
Margaret Thatcher takes office as PM in 1979. Twelve years earlier she had supported the legalisation of homosexuality. Photograph: Associated Press

Spirit of Margaret Thatcher invoked by Tory backers of gay marriage

This article is more than 11 years old
Conservatives supporting reform argue that the former PM backed the legalisation of homosexuality in the 1960s

Tory supporters of equal marriage are making an eleventh hour plea to fellow Conservative MPs to vote in favour of reform by invoking the record of Margaret Thatcher, who supported the legalisation of homosexuality in the 1960s.

Amid fears in No 10 that David Cameron may struggle to win the support of a majority of his MPs, reformers are pointing out that Thatcher set herself apart from Tory traditionalists who described the bill legalising homosexuality as a "dirty measure".

Downing Street knows that the marriage (same sex couples) bill will easily receive its second reading because an overwhelming number of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs will line up alongside Cameron loyalists to vote for it. But up to half of the Tory parliamentary party's 303 MPs may fail to support the bill by voting against it or abstaining in the second reading, which is subject to a free vote.

Scores of Tory MPs say they are facing intense pressure in their constituencies to vote against the measure. The strength of feeling in the party was highlighted on Sunday when 20 current and former Tory constituency association chairmen delivered a letter to No 10 warning that the bill would inflict "significant damage" to the party in the runup to the next election.

Geoffrey Vero, chairman of Michael Gove's Surrey Heath association, said the education secretary had told him he feared that teachers could be vulnerable to a legal challenge if they decline to inform students about legalisation of equal marriage if the bill becomes law.

Downing Street, which had been drawing up plans for the prime minister to make a strong statement in favour of the measure, softened its tactics amid anger that the free vote has been qualified by government whips. While Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs are entitled to vote with their consciences in the second reading vote, which allows the bill to proceed to its next stage, they are subject to a three-line whip on the "programme motion" which sets the timetable for the bill.

Any member of the government "payroll vote" – ministers and their parliamentary aides – who defy a three-line whip would have to resign.

The decision of the whips to impose a three line whip means that David Burrowes, aide to Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin and a leading member of the no camp, is expected to abstain in the "programme motion" vote. Burrowes will vote against the second reading without jeopardising his position as parliamentary private secretary.

Burrowes' supporters expressed anger at the government's tactics. "David Cameron has made great play of how he is offering us a free vote," one said. "But it is highly qualified. We are being whipped to enable this bill."

While the prime minister is struggling to control his backbenchers, there are signs that cabinet traditionalists are keen not to undermine him. Chris Grayling, the justice secretary who infuriated Cameron during the last general election campaign by saying that owners of bed and breakfasts in their homes should "have the right" to turn away homosexual couples, rallied to the prime minister's side.

In an article for the gay magazine Attitude, Grayling wrote: "Of course we need to protect the right of the individual to have a conscience and of religious institutions to follow their own path. But that does not mean that the state has to do the same. Its job is to recognise the commitment between a couple to spend the rest of their lives together, and not to judge who that couple are."

Iain Duncan Smith, the socially conservative work and pensions secretary, is understood to be preparing to abstain or vote in favour of the measure. Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, is understood to be less supportive.

Downing Street defended its decision to allow a free vote for the second reading while imposing a three-line whip on the programme motion. The prime minister's spokesman said: "It is a free vote because when MPs are voting on the matter of substance they are free to vote according to their own personal beliefs."

Traditionalists are citing Thatcher's vote in favour of Leo Abse's landmark sexual offences bill when it was presented to MPs in July 1966. Sir Cyril Osborne, the main Tory opponent of the measure, used an argument now deployed by opponents of same sex marriage: reformers had no mandate for change.

Osborne told MPs on 5 July 1966: "I claim that the sponsors of the bill have no mandate whatever for the measure. I hold in my hand the three party election manifestos. The Liberals, the Conservatives and the Socialists did not put one word in their manifestos about this so-called homosexual reform. I therefore say that the sponsors have no mandate whatever for the Bill. Why was there not a word in the party manifestos? We are all politicians and we have all sought votes. The framers of our manifestos knew full well that the ordinary people of Britain, to whom we go for our votes, would not have stomached this proposal."

More on this story

More on this story

  • Gay marriage: more male Tories voted against bill than female colleagues

  • Gay marriage issue fails to win Cameron support in the north, polls say

  • PMQs and gay marriage vote reaction: Politics live blog

  • Gay marriage: PM rejects call to allow civil partnerships for straight couples

  • Gay marriage: MPs vote in favour leaves Cameron adrift from Tories

  • Gay marriage debate in quotes

  • Gay marriage supporters delighted at result of MPs' vote

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