David Cameron turned down a gay magazine’s award ceremony because he knows his push to redefine marriage is unpopular, a columnist has said.
Andrew Pierce said instead of going to the Attitude magazine party to collect a Politician of the Year Award the Prime Minister declined the invitation – saying he was too busy.
But Mr Cameron didn’t send another senior Conservative to accept the award, which “suggests he is only too aware” of how unpopular his same-sex marriage policy is.
Mistake
Writing in the Daily Mail Andrew Pierce, who is gay but opposes same-sex marriage, said: “Publicly, David Cameron regards his decision to support gay marriage as one of the defining characteristics of his premiership.
“Privately, however, he has confided to some of his closest advisers that the way it was implemented was one of the biggest political mistakes he has ever made because of the uproar it unleashed within his own party.
“Cameron last week was invited to a glittering party at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand to accept the Politician of the Year Award from gay magazine Attitude.
Decline
“It was in honour of his ‘brave’ decision to push ahead with the same-sex marriage policy. But the Prime Minister politely declined the invitation because of pressure on his diary.
“So did he send another senior Tory to accept the award on his behalf — party chairman Grant Shapps or Culture Secretary Maria Miller, who covers the equalities brief in the Cabinet?
“No. Downing Street sent no one — which suggests he is only too aware his gay marriage policy has served as a recruiting agent for UKIP.”
Vote
Mr Pierce then went on to explain that Ed Miliband – the Labour leader – collected the award.
However, the columnist said, “Attitude rearranged the ceremony so that he collected the award on behalf of everyone who had voted for gay marriage”.
“Which, of course, rules out the 134 Tory MPs who voted against and the dozens more who abstained”, Mr Pierce concluded.