Two women kiss in front of an anti-gay marriage demonstration in Marseille, France (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Religious organisations will be allowed to opt in to perform same-sex marriages, equalities minister Maria Miller has announced, but the option will not be extended to the Church of England, effectively banning them by law.

Mrs Miller unveiled a ‘quadruple lock’ of safeguards for religious groups in proposals that would legalise gay marriage in churches.

The ‘ban’ on the Church of England and Church in Wales on carrying out same-sex marriages is in response to fierce opposition from elements of those churches to being ‘forced’ to carry out the ceremonies.

She told MPs the proposed law, which would be introduced before the next general election, ‘strikes the right balance’ between ‘protecting important religious freedoms while ensuring that same-sex couples have the same freedom to marry as opposite-sex couples’.



Mrs Miller also warned against an ‘hysterical’ response to the proposed legislation, amid reports up to 130 Conservative Party MPs could rebel on the issue.

‘It is deeply disappointing that some in this House yesterday wanted to link same-sex marriage with polygamy or to suggest that it was somehow an affront to those in so-called normal marriages,’ she said.

‘I hope those who oppose these plans in this House and also some church leaders will think carefully and not repeat some of the hysterical language that they have used before.’

Maria Miller unveiled the proposals to MPs today (Picture: PA)

Martin Vickers, Tory MP for Cleethorpes, said the proposals represented a ‘major social change that many of those we represent find unacceptable’.

Under pressure from Mr Cleethorpes to provide evidence of an ‘electoral mandate’ for gay marriage, Mrs Miller said such a commitment featured alongside the party’s manifesto at the time of the 2010 election.

Nick Herbert, an openly gay former minister, said the proposal ‘commands widespread support in the country’, although he was heckled by parliamentary colleague Peter Bone, Tory MP for Wellingborough, with the words ‘no it doesn’t.

Mrs Miller said she would build on Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which protects the right to freedom of religion, to provide four legal blocks for religious groups.

The proposed legislation will enshrine Canon Law, which bans same-sex weddings, in statute, effectively banning gay marriages from being carried out by the Church of England and the Church of Wales.

All three party leaders explicitly back gay marriage, and any draft bill, likely to be brought before parliament next year, should be passed with a comfortable majority.

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