Nadine Dorries attempted to invoke gay marriage to back a burka ban, but it majorly backfired
Tory MP Nadine Dorries has been mocked over attempts to invoke same-sex marriage as a reason to support a ban on face coverings.
The hardline Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire has backed an outright ban on face coverings, and defended former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson from accusations of racism after he suggested Muslim women look like “bank robbers” or “letterboxes.”
In a tweet, Dorries made a surreal attempt to link the issue to LGBT rights.
She claimed: “You cannot expect a society that celebrates gay pride and embraces gay marriage to live harmoniously when condoning the suppression of women forced to cover up, segregate and become invisible.”
Many took to the platform to point out that Dorries had actually strongly opposed same-sex marriage, despite now attempting to exploit the issue.
Labour’s David Lammy pointed out: “You voted against equal gay rights nine times, including same-sex marriage twice.”
Dorries voted against same-sex marriage twice in 2013, questioning whether the reform would lead to “a sister marrying a sister to avoid inheritance tax.”
She claimed at the time: “Gay marriage comes back to Parliament in 10 days. If Cameron wants to lose Conservative party fifty seats, he must keep on pushing through.”
Dorries claimed ahead of the vote “Gay marriage is a policy which has been pursued by the metro elite gay activists and needs to be put into the bin. I have yet to meet a gay couple in my constituency or beyond who support it; in fact, the reaction has been quite the opposite. Great Britain and its gay couples don’t live on Canal Street in Manchester, shop in The Lanes in Brighton or socialise at Gaydar in London.
“The policy is divisive, unpopular with the public, is tearing the Conservative Party apart and will influence absolutely no one in terms of the way they vote in the future.”
Dorries sent persistent tweets critical of the reform as recently as October 2017, when she bitterly described equal marriage as a “#votewinner Not.”
She now claims to “regret” her vote.
In June 2018 she wrote: “My biggest regret as MP is voting against gay marriage … I will regret it all of my life but truly hope that all same sex marriages live happily ever after.”
