News Release

Monday, 14 October 2002

Blair’s constituents oppose plans for gay adoption, according to new poll

Over 70% of parents in the Prime Minister’s Sedgefield constituency oppose plans to allow gay men to jointly adopt children, a new poll reveals. The poll comes in the same week as the House of Lords votes on plans to allow gay and unmarried couples to jointly adopt children.

The poll was carried out in Sedgefield two weeks ago by ICM. It was commissioned by The Christian Institute, which supports keeping the current grounds for adoption unchanged. At the moment only married couples can jointly adopt children.

The poll also revealed that almost one in five (18%) of Labour voters would be less likely to vote Labour if the government allowed homosexual adoption. And 86% of dads would be unhappy if their children were adopted by gay men (in the event of their death when no relative was available to look after the children).

The House of Lords will this week (Wednesday) vote on the plans to allow homosexual couples and cohabiting couples to jointly adopt children.

Summary of the results:

In the event of the unexpected death of parents who had no relative or nominated guardian to look after their children, 86% of fathers would be unhappy for their children to be looked after or adopted by two homosexual men.

71% of parents who expressed a view were against giving adoption rights to gay men.

Two thirds (66%) of parents who expressed a view think the Prime Minister was wrong to support gay adoption.

18% of Labour voters are less likely to vote Labour if the government allows gay adoption (21% of all voters are less likely to vote Labour).

Colin Hart, Director of The Christian Institute, said, “These results show that the Government is out of step with public opinion. Most ordinary people know that placing vulnerable children and orphans with homosexual couples would be terribly damaging to the child. Most parents certainly wouldn’t want it for their own children. If homosexual adoption is legalised children will suffer. I think it’s cruel deliberately to deny adopted children a mother or a father for no other reason than to support gay rights. The research is crystal clear: children need a male and a female role model in a permanent relationship.”