SCOTTISH Tory leader Ruth Davidson has joined other leading members of her party, including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, in backing reform at Westminster legalising gay marriage.
As in Holyrood plans, it is proposed that in England and Wales churches that wish to opt out of such ceremonies would have that right.
The London Mayor and the Education Secretary are the highest-profile Tory backers of the plan at Westminster, where more than 100 of the party's MPs are likely to oppose the move. Explaining why Ms Davidson was supporting the reform, a spokesman said: "Ruth has always made her position clear on same-sex marriage.
"She supports the principle, with the proviso that religious organisations which do not wish to carry out the ceremony are not compelled to do so. Ruth has confirmed that, similar to other parties, Conservative MSPs will be given a free vote on the issue when the SNP Government brings it to the chamber."
Mr Johnson said the Government should "whack through" the gay marriage legislation, saying: "It is perfectly obvious that the constituency is there for doing this. No religion is going to be under any compulsion to change their observances. Whack it through. Let's knock this thing on the head."
The Mayor conceded his own position had shifted after opposing gay marriage some years ago. But he said the world had also changed, and appealed for Tory opponents to focus on other issues. He added: "I think it is a shame the subject continues to be so prevalent. Let's get it done and talk about the real Conservative things we want to do."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article