Lords vote down Tory bid to block adoption by gays

Gay and unmarried couples will be able to adopt children after the House of Lords voted to approve the liberalisation of adoption laws last night.

A concerted effort by Tory peers to block the move failed after peers supported MPs who voted in favour of the Adoption and Children Bill on Monday.

Last night, peers voted narrowly by 215 to 184 against a Tory amendment to restrict adoption to married couples. The vote was a setback for Tory family values campaigners, who have consistently fought against reform and last month succeeded in blocking reform in a similar Lords vote.

The majority of 31 delighted Labour frontbenchers who have argued for months that allowing gay and unmarried couples to be considered for adoption would lead to more children in care finding loving and permanent homes.

Lord Hunt of Kingsheath, the Health minister, argued that the rigorous vetting procedure for couples who wished to adopt would rule out those in unstable relationships, whether they were married or not.

He said there was an anomaly in allowing single people, including homosexuals, to adopt since 1926 but not couples.

"People in casual or short-term relationships are unlikely to put themselves forward," he said. "Adoption is about making judgements about suitability based on evidence."

But Earl Howe, the Tory frontbench peer who proposed the amendment restricting adoption to married couples, said peers were voting on an "important matter" and urged them to continue their opposition to gay and unmarried couples gaining adoption rights.

"I am quite clear that the decision taken by this house on the 16 October was the right one. The optimum environment for raising children is marriage," he said.

"Two people who live together but are not married signify that they are committed to each other but only up to a certain level."

Lord Lloyd of Berwick, a crossbench peer, spoke in favour of allowing gay couples to adopt and said that since they could not marry they could not demonstrate their commitment with such a ceremony.

He said it was "surely better" that both members of a gay relationship should have a legal relationship with an adopted child. Under the current law a single homosexual is allowed to adopt but not a couple.

The issue of gay adoption has resulted in a ping-pong match between the Commons and Lords, with MPs voting for reform but their moves blocked by a coalition of Tory, crossbench and some Labour peers. Last night ministers persuaded some MPs who had previously voted against reform to back reform.

Lord Campbell-Savours, a Labour peer and former MP, said that he had changed his mind and planned to vote with the Government this time, despite reservations about the adoption of boys by gay men.

The peer said he was not averse to adoption by unmarried straight couples or lesbians but did not have enough information about the effect on the sexuality of boys of being adopted by homosexual men.

"There have been many successful placements of children in lesbian circumstances. My main concern is the placing of boy children in a homosexual household where two men are adopting parents" he said. "It's not the problem of abuse that concerns me ... Could boys in these circumstances become sexually confused?"