Just had the following email come through from Colin Hart – Coalition for Marriage.
LORDS COULD VOTE DOWN MARRIAGE BILL ON 3 JUNE
Dear marriage supporter,
Lord Dear, an independent cross-bench Peer and respected former police Chief Constable, will lead a vote against the Government’s same-sex marriage Bill at Second Reading in the House of Lords on Monday 3 June.
If he wins, the Bill will be defeated outright. It will be a decisive blow for the Government’s undemocratic plans to redefine marriage. But don’t worry if Lord Dear doesn’t achieve a majority. There will still be other opportunities to defeat the Government at later stages in the Lords.
Opposition to the Bill is growing. Last night on BBC Question Time, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the plans to redefine marriage had “upset vast numbers of people” and generated a “real sense of anger” among voters.
He said: “I have just never felt that this is what we should be focusing on. This change does redefine marriage. For millions and millions of people who are married, the meaning of marriage changes. There is a real sense of anger among many people who are married that any government thinks it has the ability to change the definition of an institution like marriage.”
The Government is in disarray. Today they’ve announced another U-turn on the Bill. They will hold a review to decide whether heterosexual couples should be allowed to opt for a civil partnership rather than marriage. That would cost the nation between £3bn and £4bn in public service pensions alone.
We’ve been right all along. This Bill is about unravelling the place of marriage in our society, regardless of the social or financial cost. While the rest of us struggle to pay our bills, the political elite are unpicking marriage rather than sorting out the economy.
That’s why the Lords vote on Monday 3 June is a big day for the nation and for our campaign.
Before the Bill gets to the Lords, MPs in the House of Commons get the chance to vote on amendments to the Bill on Monday and Tuesday. At the end of Tuesday’s debate they’ll have a chance to vote once more on the Bill as a whole at Third Reading. We will keep you posted with the latest news.
We are shifting the debate, and we believe it is possible to win in the Lords. So let’s keep going. Together we can keep the real meaning of marriage.