Gay marriage has caused more than a quarter of 2010 Conservative voters to say they are now less likely to back the Party in the upcoming European elections, according to a new poll.
Just eleven per cent of voters who backed the Tories at the last General Election said they were more likely to support the Party because of redefining marriage, the survey revealed.
The poll also showed same-sex marriage has boosted gains made by UKIP from the Conservatives – almost half of UKIP supporters said the issue made them less likely to vote Tory.
Electoral Pain
The survey was released as the first same-sex marriages in the UK took place on Saturday.
Colin Hart, campaign director of Coalition for Marriage which commissioned the poll, said the results show that the “electoral pain” for the Conservative Party continues.
“David Cameron was right when he said that gay marriage was a vote winner – I just don’t think he meant the beneficiary to be UKIP”, he said.
Opposition
Mr Hart pointed to local elections in 2013 when the Conservative Party lost 335 council seats and control of 10 councils, resulting in its “worst performance in a local election for around two decades”.
“There were those who predicted that this would be the extent of the revolt against this policy and opposition would vanish once the law had been passed.
“Yet this poll proves that David Cameron’s continued support for redefining marriage, without any mandate from the British people, is still costing huge numbers of votes, ensuring that the 2014 local and Euro elections could be even worse.
Important
“This policy seems to be the ultimate vote loser.”
David Cameron said the introduction of same-sex marriage is an “important moment for our country”, in a piece for homosexual news website Pink News.
“Put simply, in Britain it will no longer matter whether you are straight or gay – the State will recognise your relationship as equal,” he commented.
Ignored
According to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Cameron sent personal wedding cards to some of the first same-sex couples to marry over the weekend.
Last week, BBC’s Question Time included input from an audience member who said the Government “completely ignored” two-thirds of a million traditional marriage supporters.
Another audience member asked: “Why do we need to change the definition of marriage that has existed for thousands of years when equality already exists?”