Poll: 56 per cent of MPs think equal marriage will become law
A cross-party survey of MPs by ComRes has found that only 56 per cent of them believed that the proposals to include same-sex couples in civil marriages would succeed, which reduced to 41 per cent with Tory MPs. By contrast, more than two-thirds of Labour MPs and almost all of Liberal Democrats were confident that things would go ahead as planned.
The poll, commissioned by the anti-marriage equality campaign group Coalition for Marriage, also found that three-fifths of the MPs did not think the policy was of “significant importance” to their constituents, a proportion which rose by 9% amongst the Tories. In keeping with these trends, the survey found that 37 per cent of Tory MPs thought the proposals were bound to fail, with almost 22 per cent being unsure of which way things will head.
When asked if civil partnerships already provided the same legal rights as those afforded by marriage, more than 60 per cent of MPs agreed with the statement, though that proportion reduced to 50% with Labour MPs and 43% among Liberal Democrats.
The foregoing findings were first reported by the Daily Telegraph, which is opposed to the government proposals. The report also contains a statement from Colin Hart, the director of C4M, who said David Cameron was “heading for a painful and deeply damaging defeat.”
At the time of writing, ComRes has yet to release on their website further data on the survey for structural and methodological analyses.
