Lib Dems elect leader who abstained on equal marriage vote

The Liberal Democrats have elected Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron as their new leader, following the resignation of Nick Clegg in the wake of the party’s disastrous general election result in May.

Mr Farron beat former Health Minister Norman Lamb in the contest, winning 19,137 of the 33,897 votes cast in an election in which 56% of the party’s members took part, the BBC reports.

However, Mr Farron – who has strongly held Christian beliefs – has come under criticism for failing to vote for equal marriage in 2013. Despite voting in favour of the measure at early readings, the 45-year-old was one of just nine Lib Dem MPs who abstained from voting during the third and final reading of the bill.

Speaking to The Observer earlier this year, Mr Farron claimed that his voting record did not mean he opposed equal marriage.

“It is important to be very, very clear that I voted for the legalisation of equal marriage and support it, and will fight very hard against any attempts to water it down – which there might be,” he said.

“Put simply, there were a couple of amendments that were about the protection of essentially religious minorities, conscience protections, and I kind of voted for those. Me doing something like that, which is about protecting people’s right to conscience, I definitely regret it, if people have misread that and think that means I’m lukewarm on equal marriage.”

Asked if he would take the same decision again, he said: “No, I would vote for equal marriage.”

Speaking to PinkNews prior to his election as leader, Mr Farron made a series of pledges to the LGBT community, saying: “On LGBT+ issues, how do you follow it? I’ll give you three things I’m very keen we do.

“One, when it comes to the equal marriage legislation, I think we really missed a trick on trans issues. On the spousal veto, I think it’s an appalling thing that one person is allowed to block another person’s freedom. We should be making that a priority.

“Secondly, it strikes me as deeply troubling that there was no regulation of psychotherapists in the UK for quack conversion therapy.

“Thirdly, we’ve got to end the gay blood ban, which is a disgrace. My pledge to you is that my first opposition day bill will be getting rid of the gay blood ban. All of these things need to be based on the science, not on prejudice.”

The Lib Dems were incremental in the passage of equal marriage under the last coalition government, with the legislation being spear-headed by the party’s Parliamentary Under Secretary for Equalities, Lynne Featherstone, who lost her seat back in May during the party’s heavy election defeat.

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