Lib Dem Conference told gay marriage will be brought in before 2015

Speaking at the party’s spring conference in Gateshead, the Lib Dem leader told activists: “We are bringing forward proposals for gay marriage, already provoking debate. Let me just say, if you are a young gay person, your freedom to love who you choose is a fundamental right in a liberal society and you will always have our support.”

The government was criticised by the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, last week over its plans to allow same sex marriage. The Scottish Government is currently consulting over similar plans.

A letter from two senior archbishops was due be read in 2,500 parish churches yesterday arguing that the change would reduce the significance of marriage.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and Archbishop Peter Smith, the Archbishop of Southwark, told Catholics they have a “duty to do all we can to ensure that the true meaning of marriage is not lost for future generations”.

Mr Clegg also said the first elections to the House of Lords will also take place before 2015.

But the general election due to be held in May of that year will simply be a “staging post” for the party’s government ambitions, he said.

“I want our ambitions for education to be at the very heart of our manifesto in 2015. Education that delivers on the liberal promise: that every child can go as far as their talent will take them. That is what we Liberal Democrats will fight for.

“So 2015 is not the destination. 2015 is a staging post. This country will be a more liberal nation but we will just be beginning to tackle the deep problems that cramp the lives of our citizens and hobble our economy.”

He said the Lib Dems were the only truly “one nation” party – a phrase traditionally associated with their coalition colleagues. “The other parties are bound and gagged by vested interests. We are not. The Liberal Democrats are the only true one nation party”, he said.