Senior Shadow Cabinet ministers have committed the Conservative Party to gay law reform. Oliver Letwin MP, the Shadow Home Secretary, and John Bercow MP, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, have called for gay partners to be given many of the legal rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples.

Speaking on BBC Television`s Question Time programme, Mr Bercow said that gay people “suffered grievous and unacceptable discrimination on several fronts“. He continued: “What Conservatives want to do, in the name of constructive and decent social reform, is to identify these issues in a very practical way, say they are unacceptable, and devise intelligent and practical ways of overcoming them“.

Mr Bercow identified some of the issues which needed addressing. These included hospital treatment and visiting rights, registration of a partner`s death, taxation, pensions and compensation arrangements.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4`s Today programme, Mr Letwin said: “Those of us who are heterosexual have the choice to marry, and Conservatives believe that people should exercise that choice if they want any of the rights and benefits. But homosexuals can`t marry. We don`t want to create a pale imitation of marriage but we do recognise that there are real grievances“.

Mr Letwin explained that his policies was not driven by morality, but by a need to alleviate some of the practical problems faced by gay people, problems which included consultation over a partner`s critical illness, inheritance of assets, and tenancy rights.

Andy Jennings (pictured), Chairman of the Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality (TORCHE) said: “We have seen two members of the Shadow Cabinet in as many days who have publicly spoken on the need to address some of the pragmatic problems faced by gay people because of their sexuality. I welcome their comments as evidence that the Conservative Party, the party of individual responsibility, is taking these concerns more seriously than the present Government“.

He continued: “The issues identified by Mr Letwin and Mr Bercow are exactly those on which TORCHE has been campaigning for the last six months, and will continue to do so in the future“.

James Davenport, Deputy Chairman of TORCHE added: “These policy commitments mean that the Conservatives are now streets ahead of Labour on gay issues. Labour offers nothing to gay people. We want to tackle the real issues that affect real people in their daily lives“.


Event
TORCHE provides a platform for all Conservatives, gay or straight, to discuss issues relating to homosexual equality. The next meeting, on the subject of pensions, takes place at the House of Lords on Tuesday 29th January when the speaker will be Tim Boswell MP, the Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions. For more information visit www.torche.gb.org.

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