Opposition grows over Nationalist MSP's stance on same-sex marriage

Published on Thursday 4 August 2011 17:38

A ROW has broken out among Nationalist politicians after Glasgow MSP John Mason was attacked by SNP MP Pete Wishart over his controversial motion on same-sex marriage.

The MP for Perth and North Perthshire launched his attack on Twitter last night after Mr Mason lodged a motion in advance of a Scottish Government consultation on legalising same-sex marriages.

Responding to the motion, which has already been branded as "bizarre" and "spurious" by Labour and Green MSPs, Mr Wishart said: "John Mason's nasty little anti-gay marriage motion is just wrong, and really disappointed that other colleagues have signed it."

Mr Wishart told The Scotsman: "I believe John's got it totally wrong on this one. My views on this have been pretty straight forward over the years. One of the things I feel very passionate on is equality issues. I do respect that when it comes to conscience issues people have their own minds to make up, but to put a parliamentary motion was a bit disappointing."

He said he felt Mr Mason's actions were "inflammatory" and that "it was important that a lot of us in the SNP disagree fundamentally with that view".

In his motion, Mr Mason had said that: "No person or organisation should be forced to be involved in or to approve of same-sex marriages." The Shettleston MSP could not be reached last night but has already defended the motion, saying he was concerned that "freedom of religious belief and expression are protected" and that Christians would be "hammered" during the debate.

However, opposition to Mr Mason gathered momentum yesterday when Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie MSP tabled an amendment to the motion, accusing him of emphasising the "prejudices and intolerance that still exists in Scotland surrounding same-sex marriage".

Meanwhile a campaign against the motion has also been launched on Facebook.

Last night, an SNP spokeswoman said: "People have different views on this but we have a commitment to carry out a consultation on this, which the government will be launching to fulfil a manifesto commitment."

She said there was a broad spectrum of opinion on the issue in the SNP, pointing out that MSP Marco Biagi helped launch the Scottish Youth Parliament's campaign for equal marriage earlier this week, and that a large number of SNP MSPs had signed an amendment.