The Not-So-Great Divide

Did Gay Marriage Cause ‘Brexit’?

david cameron via 10 Downing Street TH.jpg

Judging by a recent article, Daily Mail columnist Dominic Lawson is quite confident Britain wouldn’t — couldn’t  –have left the EU if Prime Minister David Cameron hadn’t been so intent on pushing through same-sex marriage.

Related: Mr. Gay Great Britain Gets Personal On Testing HIV Positive After Resisting PrEP

The column was published on the heels of Cameron’s resignation speech on Friday, in which he called out marriage equality as one of his top achievements.

“In fact, these apparently unrelated matters are inextricably linked,” Lawson writes.

If it were not for David Cameron’s decision to legalise marriage between people of the same sex – a measure I supported – Britain would not now be on her way out of the EU.”

The legalization of gay marriage, he argues, is what split the Conservative Party, luring those who were most opposed towards Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party.

Related: UK Prime Minister David Cameron To Push For Gay Weddings In Church

This was seized on by Nigel Farage. I had lunch with UKIP’s leader at that time. I recall … how gleeful he was at the way the gay marriage row was sending shire Tories in droves to switch to UKIP membership.

‘Though Farage himself is a libertarian, and definitely no moralist, he exploited this to the full.”

So, Lawson speculates, in order to get this contingent back on his side (and avoid possibly losing seats to UKIP in 2015), Cameron’s only recourse was to offer an in-or-out referendum on EU membership.

He suspects Cameron is now thinking, “If it hadn’t been for gay marriage, I would not now be facing this ruination.”

Do you think gay marriage and Brexit are “inextricably tied”? Weigh in in the comments below.

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