‘No 10 pleads with labour to save gay marriage bill’

Published on 20 May 2013 at 08:58

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Plans to legalise gay marriage must overcome a new hurdle with some MPs seeking to derail the bill by adding an amendment to the existing law allowing gay couples the right to form civil partnerships, to be extended to also include heterosexual couples.

The Marriage Bill, which was approved by MPs when it was first debated in February, will return to the House of Commons for its report stage today after being debated by the UK parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords.

Should the amendment extending civil partnership rights to heterosexual couples be passed, the government claims this would delay the law’s introduction by two years and cost an extra £4bn (€4.7bn).

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