Liam Fox: Gay Marriage Plans 'Divisive'

Former Cabinet minister Liam Fox has attacked proposals to allow same-sex weddings as "divisive, ill thought through and constitutionally wrong".

In a letter to constituents, he said the planned legislation appeared to have been written "on the hoof" and would please only "a very small, if vocal, minority".

Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to press ahead with a commitment to change the law by 2015 despite warnings the issue has caused widespread upset amongst grassroots Tories.

Dr Fox said it had already "led to the alienation of many loyal and, in many cases lifelong, supporters of the Conservative Party" and demanded a rethink "before things get out of hand".

The Tory MP said he did not believe the move was a deliberate effort to "antagonise" party traditionalists. But he said it was "a form of social engineering of which Conservatives should be instinctively wary".

He stressed he was not anti-gay and as a doctor believed same-sex relationships were "a variant of the spectrum of human sexual behaviour and should be treated with tolerance and respect".

But he said discrimination had been addressed by the introduction of civil partnerships and questioned the strength of demand for further reform.

He said a legal bar on the Church of England performing same-sex wedding ceremonies - part of a series of safeguards designed to reassure religious critics - was "absurd and anomalous" when it did not also extend to the Catholic Church which had been still more vehement in its opposition.

The former defence secretary who quit the Government in 2011 after he allowed businessman friend Adam Werritty access to his meetings and official trips, said European courts could "drive a coach and horses" through the church safeguards, and warned it risked "weakening and splintering" Christians who already felt under threat.

"To fail to understand this is to risk an affront to a large stabilising and normally acquiescent section of this country which will sow completely unnecessary seeds of dissent," he said.

"I do not doubt the sincerity of the proponents of this measure and think talk of attempts to purposefully antagonise traditional Conservatives is far-fetched," he concluded.

"However, I believe these proposals are divisive, ill thought through and constitutionally wrong. That is why I will vote against them in the House of Commons."

Dr Fox is not the first Tory MP to openly criticise the reforms.

Many have called for the plans to be postponed until after the next election and have insisted there is no public majority in favour of allowing gay couples to wed.

Last month, senior Tory backbencher Brian Binley warned Mr Cameron the proposals to allow gay couples to wed in some churches and other religious places of worship had caused "organisational factions within the party squabbling in public over the issue".

More than 100 Tory MPs are expected to oppose the plans when the Commons votes on the Bill next year.