Ann Widdecombe has said that she did not campaign for David Cameron “all day, every day in the last general election” so that he could destroy traditional marriage.
The former Cabinet Minister warned that the Government is “determined to press ahead with the removal of the terms ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ in its wholly superfluous introduction of gay marriage”.
And she accused the Government of shrugging off a pro-marriage petition, the largest this Parliament, which has already gathered more than 420,000 signatures.
Sign
She also urged more people to make their views known to the Government, saying: “It will listen only when it approves of the response and if it doesn’t then its citizens can shut up and stop pestering.
“Well don’t shut up, go to c4m.org.uk and sign up.”
Earlier this week a new survey revealed that most Conservative MPs doubt whether David Cameron’s controversial plan to redefine marriage will succeed.
Doomed
The survey, conducted by ComRes, found that 37 per cent of Conservative MPs believe the contentious proposal is doomed to failure.
A further 22 per cent of Tory MPs said that they were unsure about the proposal’s success.
Last month an influential Conservative commentator warned that David Cameron’s plan to rewrite the definition of marriage is not a vote winner.
Prioritising
Tim Montgomerie, the editor of the ConservativeHome blog, made clear that he personally supports redefining the institution.
But he also warned that the Tories should be prioritising issues such as rising fuel bills and unemployment over its “obsession” with redefining marriage.
And a former chairman of the Conservative Party said that Mr Cameron’s plans for same-sex marriage are ill-considered and will not win him the next election.
Lord Tebbit said: “I doubt if Mr Cameron’s new-found enthusiasm for ‘gay marriage’ will make it any more likely that he will lead the Conservative Party to a majority in 2015 or add greatly to the sum total of happiness and contentment in our society.”