Samantha Cameron had to persuade ex-PM to back same-sex marriage
Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha Cameron with their daughter Florence. (Stefan Rousseau – WPA Pool/Getty)
Samantha Cameron lobbied her husband to legalise same-sex marriage in England and Wales, the couple have revealed.
The revelation came during a joint interview with David and Samantha Cameron on ITV’s This Morning on Thursday, September 19.
Ex-prime minister David Cameron, who was among those responsible for the introduction of same-sex marriage in 2013, said he had been considering making more minor reforms before his wife convinced him of the cause.
David Cameron: My wife pushed for gay couples to get ‘full’ marriage rights.
He said: “I was fiddling around with changes to try and make things more equal, and actually, Samantha was the one saying, ‘It doesn’t undermine our marriage for gay people to get married. Why not do the full thing?’
“I took a journey to get there. I supported civil partnerships, and I thought, ‘That’s fixed the problem of gay people not being able to leave property to each other or having hospital visiting rights.’
“It took me a while to get to the point of realising that what we really needed was full equality.”
Samantha Cameron says she wouldn’t want her children to struggle with homophobia
Samantha Cameron explained: “I always feel that as a parent, anything you can do to make that as easy as possible in someone’s life is important.”
She added: “I work in the fashion industry so I obviously have a lot of friends who are gay… some of whom found it very easy to come out to their parents at an early age, age some of which had it very difficult and it took a long time.
“If one of my children was gay I would hate them to have to go through that… and I strongly felt that being able to marry was one of those things that could make change.”
David Cameron and Samantha Cameron attend the Summer Party at the V&A Museum on June 20, 2018 in London, England. (David M. Benett/Getty)
The proposals for same-sex marriage were brought about Liberal Democrat minister Baroness Featherstone in 2011, progressing through the House of Commons two years later with the backing of Cameron.
He later praised the reform as one of his proudest achievements.
Equal marriage was one of David Cameron’s proudest achievements.
In his memoir For The Record, Cameron said: “Equal marriage was one of the most contentious, hard-fought and divisive issues during my time as prime minister.
“We would lose party members; one even came to my surgery and tore up their membership card in front of me.
“It was an issue that I would worry and even wobble over. But I have absolutely no regrets, and it is one of the things of which I’m proudest.”
He added: “In ‘coming out’ for gay marriage, in some ways I surprised myself.
“I was on the wrong side of Section 28. I also ended up abstaining on — rather than voting against — Iain Duncan Smith’s rejection of gay couples’ right to adopt. I should have proactively supported that right.”
The Conservative ex-leader said that he eventually came to the conclusion that “people should be able to enter into a legal union with the person they love”.
