FRANCIS Maude, one of the Conservative Party's key modernisers, last night warned that if the Tories did not back gay marriage but succumbed to "backward-looking social attitudes", then the party would be consigned to electoral oblivion.
His message will be seen as a direct response to the remarks from Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, who branded the UK Government's support for civil gay marriages as "grotesque".
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