Another top Tory has expressed his disappointment at the decision of an Ipswich MP to vote for the Marriages (Same Sex Couples) Bill earlier this week. Tory Roads and Transport supremo, Cllr Guy McGregor, who is a member of Suffolk County Council, has hit out at North Ipswich & Central Suffolk MP, Dr Dan Poulter.
Cllr McGregor, who is a member of the Diocesan Synod and a church warden near his home at Hoxne in north Suffolk, said he could not support the change because he saw it as an attack on the traditional family.
He told the East Anglian Daily Times that he had made Dr Dan aware of his views, adding “I will not support him or vote for him again. He knows this and knows why I have taken this decision.
“I have always made this position clear and I tried to have a debate on this at the constituency AGM last year, but it was ruled out of order by the association president.”
Mr McGregor said he accepted that the government now recognised civil partnerships – but could not accept the concept of gay marriage.
The news comes just 24 hours after Ipswich Spy revealed that regular Tory candidate James Spencer had announced his intention not to stand in Bridge Ward over his MP’s decision to support the bill.
Mr Spencer said that Ben Gummer MP had “the look and feel of a 14 year old prodigy who’s showing off to the sixth form debating club when he tries to make a clever point” and that his support for the redefinition of marriage meant that he could no longer support him.
One Ipswich Tory criticised Mr Spencer for stepping down as a candidate, as Cllr Nadia Cenci told her twitter followers “Goodbye to the staid and stuffy I say”.
Cllr McGregor will make his protest by not voting for Dr Dan, but will still be standing as a councillor in May and won’t be resigning from his position on the Tory cabinet. Given the size of Dr Dan’s majority, Ipswich Spy doubts he’ll lose a lot of sleep over Cllr McGregor’s “principled” decision.
Filed under: Campaign Activity, Cock Ups, Junkets and Expenses, Media, Suffolk County Council Tagged: | Ben Gummer MP, Dr Dan Poulter MP, Guy McGregor, James Spencer
Quite typically our party leadership identifies a core challenge, and then focuses its entire attention on periphial issues.
Ian Duncan Smith correctly identified that the real collapse in society was due to family breakdown and a benefits culture.
The Conservatives acknowledged that the family unit is not only failing, but that families desperately need more support. The government’s own stats reveal:
• 85% of both parents now work; and 60% of single parents work.
• 80% of unmarried couples break up; and 44% of married couples divorce
• Broken homes are said to cost taxpayers £24b per year.
The conservatives came to power claiming to understand the value of; and supporting families. Yet, all their resource and focus appears to have been diverted from improving the lives, prospects and wellbeing of our children; and all energies put into upgrading civil partnerships to full Gay Marriage. I’m not against gay marriages but would prefer the party to focus on what it was elected to deliver.
Much of the core work the Government is doing is about repairing the British economy. Actually this doesn’t need huge amounts of legislation, so they need to come up with something to keep the backbenchers busy. Personally I think that same sex marriage is something whose time had come. It should probably have been done when Civil Partnerships were introduced. There are problems with this bill, but they can be solved in the committee stage. I don’t see the point of making a public statement that you won’t vote for an MP but refusing to give up your lucrative position on the council. At least James Spencer has made a principled stand, much as I disagree with him on the substance of the policy I can respect the stand he is taking. Guy McGregor just wanted to get his name in the paper again. Self promotion of the worse kind.