Which of Clegg’s Cabinet colleagues voted against Section 28 repeal?
Much has been written about Theresa May’s somewhat less-than-enlightened voting record on a variety of sex issues, particularly gay rights.
And today I was perusing Lib Dem Voice when I came across this statement from a comment-leaver:
“At least five of Nick Clegg’s cabinet colleagues voted against Labour’s repeal of Section 28”
So, getting an assistant on the case, I thought I’d look into who exactly voted against the repeal. Some results are as follows.
“No”, rather confusingly, means they voted for the repeal.
“Aye” means they voted against the repeal.
Here goes:
Ian Duncan Smith AYE
Cheryl Gillan AYE
Dominic Grieve AYE
William Hague AYE
Eric Pickles AYE
Caroline Spelman AYE
George Osborne NO
David Cameron ABSENT
Ken Clarke ABSENT
Liam Fox ABSENT
Chris Grayling ABSENT
Andrew Lansley ABSENT
Theresa May ABSENT
Interesting, eh?
Furthermore, Baroness Warsi infamously used election leaflets in 2005 that included the following lines:
“Labour has scrapped Section 28, which was introduced by the Conservatives to stop schools promoting alternative sexual lifestyles such as homosexuality to children as young as seven years old.
“Labour reduced the age of consent for homosexuality from 18 to 16, allowing schoolchildren to be propositioned for homosexual relationships.”
Oh dear.
May 25th, 2010 at 10:06 am
I such a large number of absences usual, or was it a way for embarrassed shadow cabinet members to avoid taking sides?
Interestingly only George Osborne had the guts to support repeal.
Tut tut.
May 25th, 2010 at 11:48 am
Finally, some good news about Gideon!!
May 25th, 2010 at 11:57 am
The full list is here, with the same caveat that “no” means “in favour of repeal”:
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2003-03-10&number=109&display=allpossible&dmp=826