UK gay marriage bill set to pass

London: Britain’s gay marriage bill was set to pass a crucial parliamentary hurdle on Tuesday, after Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to strike a last-minute deal with the opposition to stop members of his own Conservative party wrecking the plans.

Lawmakers in the lower House of Commons were expected to approve the bill following a marathon debate on Monday, which saw Cameron join forces with Labour to defeat a “wrecking amendment” backed by dozens of rebellious Conservative right-wingers.

Their proposal to allow straight couples to form civil partnerships would have heavily delayed the bill, but MPs opposed it by 375 votes to 70 and backed a Labour plan to discuss the rebel proposition further without blocking the main part of the legislation.

After Tuesday’s vote the bill will pass to the upper house of parliament, the House of Lords, where it is expected to face stiff opposition.

While Cameron has seen off a damaging rebellion from his backbenchers, his authority has taken a battering over gay marriage at a time when he already faces bitter opposition from many Tories over a promised referendum on Britain’s EU membership.

Cameron has been forced to send a mass email to Conservative party activists after an unnamed ally of the prime minister reportedly called them “mad, swivel-eyed loons”.

“I am proud of what you do. And I would never have around me those who sneered or thought otherwise,” he wrote.

The “loons” comment - party co-chairman Lord Andrew Feldman strongly denies he was behind it - fuelled accusations that Cameron’s inner circle are out of touch with traditional Tories and that the prime minister surrounds himself with people from the same privileged background as himself.

Many Conservative supporters fear that with a general election two years away, Cameron’s backing for gay marriage is driving traditional Tory voters to the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

The anti-immigrant, anti-EU party is a fast-rising force in British politics after it made strong gains in local elections last month.

A poll on Tuesday suggested that support for the Conservatives had slumped to a record low of 24 per cent - just two per cent ahead of UKIP - although a different poll put the Tories on 31 per cent.

Last week, over 100 Conservative MPs took the unprecedented step of backing a motion expressing regret that the government’s legislative plans for the year contain no guarantee of a referendum on EU membership, which Cameron has promised for 2017.

In a sign of the bitterness he faces within the party, more than 30 Conservative local party chairmen wrote to him over the weekend accusing him of “treating the membership with contempt” and warning his support for gay marriage could cost them the next election in 2015.

“For the sake of the wellbeing of the country and the integrity and future success of the party, we urge you not to continue with your policy of re-defining marriage,” the letter said.