Lib Dems' Tim Farron regrets abstaining in gay marriage vote

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/17/tim-farron-regrets-abstention-gay-marriage-vote

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The frontrunner in the race to succeed Nick Clegg as leader of the Liberal Democrats has expressed regret for abstaining in a gay marriage vote during the last parliament.

Tim Farron was among nine Lib Dem MPs who abstained at third reading of the marriage bill – which was carried by 366 votes to 161 in May 2013 – despite previously voting for same-sex marriage legislation.

Farron told the Observer that his abstention 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 added: “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.”

At the general election Farron fought off Ukip and the Tories in his Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency to secure 51% of the vote. He is left-leaning and voted against some of the coalition’s most controversial policies, such as the bedroom tax and trebling of tuition fees. But his stance on gay marriage, a touchstone liberal issue, attracted criticism. His rival for the leadership, former health minister Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk, also abstained, but was out of the country at the time.

Farron said the near-destruction of the Lib Dems’ parliamentary base could make the task of the next leader easier. “Let’s be really blunt, a building that’s been knocked down is easier to rebuild than one that is just pretty badly damaged. I would argue that our ability to build a party that we want, the structures that we want, the targeting strategies that we want and the ways in which we tackle diversity … that opportunity is much greater for us because we have a lot of vacancies. And I’ll be determined to do that by muscular means if necessary.”

Speaking about his decision to run for the leadership, he said: “We are down to a stage now where we have eight MPs and as far as I’m concerned the only way is up. Rosie [his wife] and I had a chat about this over the weekend and she just said ‘look love, you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to do it.’ This is no longer about ambition, it’s about duty. I am liberal to my fingertips and I’m not seeing this party die on my watch. So we are going to build the mother of all fightbacks.”