Former Tory Party leader Iain Duncan Smith wrote in the Mail on Sunday (17 November) that ‘if the Bill becomes law next year another nail will have been hammered into the coffin of the traditional family’. The MP was seen by some to be challenging Conservative leader David Cameron to say where his party stands ‘in the fightback to save our civilisation’ (Melanie Phillips, Daily Mail, 19 November).
Catholic Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor warned, in an open letter to The Times (19 November), that the legislation would undermine the role of the father by ‘subordinating the natural rights of a child to the desires of lesbian couples’. Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, accused the Government of going against its own 2004 legislation by proposing ‘the removal, by design, of the
father of the child’.
Politicians urged Gordon Brown to grant the Labour party a free vote when the ‘contentious and controversial bill’ (Daily Mail, 19 November) returns to the Commons.
Analysis conducted by Echo Research from data supplied to PRWeek from NewsNow
