The adoption bill has been "hijacked" by the issue of gay rights,
Conservative spokesperson for social care Tim Loughton told the
conference last week.
Loughton was speaking after chief executive of Baaf Adoption and
Fostering Felicity Collier asked him about the bill, which he was
involved in drafting, following its defeat in the House of Lords on
the issue of gay couples being allowed to adopt.
"It really annoys me more than anything," he told the conference.
"We had a very good committee and excellent witnesses, and we
worked very hard to produce an adoption bill which is a
generational change and which would make a very big difference to
children."
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He told delegates that the original bill had contained nothing
about changing the status of those who can adopt. He said: "That
has come in via a very circuitous route. What makes me angry is
that it's been hijacked by people - people on all sides - who want
to make it a gay rights issue.
"You can argue long and hard about who should qualify, but that is
a side issue - you can have separate legislation to deal with that.
I hope the rest of the bill goes through. It shouldn't be about the
rights of people to adopt - it's about the rights of children to
get a second chance."
