Nigel Farage: Same-sex marriage debates were ‘not particularly needed’
The leader of the UKIP Nigel Farage, has said he thought the debate which led to same-sex marriage becoming legal in England and Wales was “not particularly needed”.
Noting that leading gay rights charity Stonewall did not initially come out in support of same-sex marriage, Farage spoke to Nick Ferrari on LBC to say the debate was “an argument and a fight that wasn’t particularly needed.”
He said: “This whole question of gay marriage – what I’ve said about it is firstly it wasn’t in the manifesto, secondly it was an argument and a fight that wasn’t particularly needed – even Stonewall weren’t campaigning for gay marriage. Thirdly – my big concern is that I do think – when we talk about minority groups and their rights, we have to respect all minority groups and their rights.
“My big fear is all the while We are under the European Court of Human Rights we face a very real risk that as registry offices conduct gay marriages, and churches don’t – there is a clear argument in Strasbourg that there is state discrimination. I think if the churches and the faith communities were forced to perform gay marriages against their will – that would be wrong.
He continued: “Once we are free of the EU, and we are free of the European Court of Human Rights, and we have our own laws, and own Supreme Court, that worry would disappear.”
In an apparent UKIP breakdown in internal communication in March, PinkNews received and answers to a readers’ Q&A confirmed by an official spokesman to have been approved by Nigel Farage which stated that the party was reviewing all of its policies including its previously stated opposition to same-sex marriage.
