David Cameron should be out there making the case for gay marriage

David Cameron’s approach to the gay marriage debate inside his own party has been to take a low profile. The passion and eloquence he displayed on the subject in his first conference speech as leader, has been replaced by a strategy of keeping his contributions on the matter to a minimum.

This is, I think, a pity. There is no better Conservative advocate of the case for it than the Prime Minister. The crucial point about Cameron’s position, and why he might have been able to carry some more socially conservative minded people with him, is that he starts from the position that marriage is one of the most important, and best, institutions in our society.

The result of Cameron’s low-profile approach is that it has been the Tory opponents of gay marriage who have been making the running. His absence from the debate has also denied some nervous Tory MPs the cover they might have persuaded them to vote for the legislation.