Edwina Currie: ‘The Queen Mum was always supportive of gay rights’
Along with praising David Cameron over his leadership on equal marriage, former Conservative MP Edwina Currie has tweeted PinkNews to say the Queen Mother “was always supportive of gay rights.”
Ms Currie, the Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire until 1997 and a former health minister in the Thatcher government re-tweeted PinkNews’ story of the same-sex marriage bill passing its final stage in Parliament yesterday evening.
Indicating how the bill was due for imminent Royal Assent, the tweet featured a meme of Queen Elizabeth II in a collection of rainbow colours.
The #equalmarriage bill for England and Wales has just passed its final stage and will receive Royal Assent soon. pic.twitter.com/jPGeX7SSxx
— PinkNews (@pinknews) July 16, 2013
Ms Currie tweeted PinkNews to say: “Queen Mum was always supportive of gay rights. ‘lf we didn’t have them as staff, we’d have to go self-service,’ she once said.”
The Queen Mother died 11 years ago on March 30 2002 – aged 101. She reportedly made the comments during the 1970s after being lectured by a Conservative minister about employing gay people.
Later, Ms Currie tweeted Prime Minister David Cameron’s official Twitter account to say: “Big Dave stuck his neck out on gay marriage, took stand against bigotry. Good for him.”
She added: “Gay rights need support from all parties. Lefties? didn’t do it when they could have.”
However, some Twitter users criticised Ms Currie for making a partisan reference to a parliamentary victory that required cross-party support.
Others also questioned the merits of her comments about the Queen Mother’s support for gay rights.
