The Commons home affairs committee has published a report on drugs today calling for a royal commission and suggesting that decriminalisation or legalisation should be considered. The report was released under embargo at midnight but, as Alan Travis reveals in his Guardian story, government sources were rejecting the royal commission idea before the report was even out. You can read the full documenthere, and the home affairs committee press notice here. And here is what the report says about decriminalisation.
We were impressed by what we saw of the Portuguese depenalised system. It had clearly reduced public concern about drug use in that country, and was supported by all political parties and the police. The current political debate in Portugal is about how treatment is funded and its governance structures, not about depenalisation itself. Although it is not certain that the Portuguese experience could be replicated in the UK, given societal differences, we believe this is a model that merits significantly closer consideration. (Paragraph 243)Following the legalisation of marijuana in the states of Washington and Colorado and the proposed state monopoly of cannabis production and sale in Uruguay, we recommend that the Government fund a detailed research project to monitor the effects of each legalisation system to measure the effectiveness of each and the overall costs and benefits of cannabis legalisation. (Paragraph 248)
Jeremy Browne, the Lib Dem Home Office minister, has been giving interviews about it this morning. He has been trying not to sound too negative, although it is clear that Keith Vaz, the committee chairman, is not going to get his royal commission. I will post full details of the Browne interviews shortly.
Otherwise, it is relatively quiet today. Here are the items on the agenda.
1pm: David Cameron is speaking at a press gallery lunch.
2pm: Liam Fox, the Conservative former defence secretary, gives a speech on Europe. As the Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday, he will say his party should adopt a “settled position” on Europe by autumn of next year.
2.30pm: Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
3.15pm: Una O’Brien, permanent secretary at the Department of Health, gives evidence to the public accounts committee about franchising NHS trusts.
And there are two cancer-related stories on the go. Cameron is announcing plans to introduce “high-tech DNA mapping” for patients with cancer and rare diseases within the NHS. And Labour has published figures purportedly showing that cancer networks are “in chaos”.
As usual, I'll also be covering all the breaking political news as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I'll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm, and another in the afternoon.
If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm at @AndrewSparrow.
Updated
Jeremy Browne, the Lib Dem Home Office minister, has been responding to the home affairs committee drugs report on behalf of the government this morning. Here are the main points he has been making.
• Browne claimed that the government's approach to drugs was working.
It is not true to say we are making no progress on drugs. There’s been ... dramatic falls in the amount of drugs consumption happening and the harm caused by drugs.That includes very serious drugs so heroin for example, crack cocaine, there have been dramatic falls in recent years. The average age of heroin addicts is going up. Fewer younger people are coming on stream as heroin addicts. There’s been significant progress on treatment.
When it was put to him that Kenneth Clarke has said that the government is losing the war on drugs, he said he did not accept that.
• Browne appeared to blame Theresa May, the home secretary, for rejecting the committee's call for a royal commission.
The home secretary has said that she doesn’t think that a royal commission is the answer at this time but we are open to new ideas and evidence based research to carry on reducing the harm caused by drugs in this country.
• He claimed the government was "open to imaginative thinking" on drugs policy. Although he confirmed that the government was rejecting the committee's key recommendation, Browne tried his best to sound positive about the committee's work. "I think it’s a responsible and thoughtful and thought-provoking report," he said.
• He said the drugs landscape was "evolving the whole time". For example, new "legal highs" were being developed and cannabis was getting stronger. He said cannabis was "six or seven times stronger than it was a generation ago". This meant it was "the equivalent of people going from drinking a pint of beer to drinking a pint of neat vodka".
• He said the existence of legal highs showed that legalising drugs did not necessarily reduce the harm they can cause.
• He said he was willing to visit Portugal to investigate the impact of decriminalisation there.
I've taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.
Updated
And here is some Twitter reaction to what Jeremy Browne has been saying this morning about drugs.
From the BBC's Carole Walker
From the BBC's Liz Shaw
From the Economist's Daniel Knowles
From Ewan Hoyle, founder of Liberal Democrats for Drug Policy Reform
Updated
Nick Clegg himself told an interviewer earlier this year that he believed "the so-called war on drugs [has been] a spectacular failure". Jeremy Browne specifically rejected this claim in his interviews this morning. (See 9.38am.)
He also hinted that he did not necessarily agree with Theresa May's decision to rule out a royal commission on drugs. (See 9.38am.)
As a Lib Dem minister in the Home Office, Browne has two bosses, May and Clegg. Today, on drugs, he's managed to suggest he disagrees with both of them.
Harriet Harman, the shadow culture secretary and deputy Labour leader, has today published a draft bill to implement the Leveson report.It's a six-clause bill and, including the schedule, it runs to seven pages.
Here's Patrick Wintour's story about the Harman initiative. And here's the statement Harman has put out this morning.
This bill puts into effect the central recommendation of Lord Justice Leveson’s report – legal backing for the new system of independent self-regulation by the press. The bill would ensure that the system was verified at the outset and given a health check once every three years.This bill is an offer to MPs on all sides of the House who want to implement Leveson’s proposals. It shows that a Bill can be done in a way that is not cumbersome or invasive, and we look forward to discussing it in the cross-party talks on Thursday.
And here is the Labour note explaining exactly what the bill would do.
Clause 1 is a guarantee of media freedom, as recommended by Leveson. It places a duty on all ministers to uphold and protect media freedom.Clause 2 would facilitate and encourage the new system of independent self-regulation by the press. It also gives a definition of ‘the press’.Clause 3 establishes the Recognition Panel, which will be headed by the Lord Chief Justice.Clause 4 describes how this Recognition Panel will work. It says it can recognise a self-regulatory body if it meets certain requirements, and also if key parts of ‘the press’ (as outlined in clause 2) are part of it. When a body is recognised, it becomes a ‘press standards trust’. The Recognition Panel checks after two years, and then after every three, whether the self-regulator is still meeting the requirements. Clause 4(8) states that MPs cannot be members of this body.Clause 5 adds into law major incentives to join the body. It says that publications not signing up could be hit by higher exemplary damages in court, while members would face lower damages. It also changes the Civil Procedure Rules so members of the system would get a better deal. Publications can also benefit in court if they took advice from the self-regulator before publishing a storyClause 6 is the short titleThe Schedule sets out the ‘Recognition Criteria’. These are the requirements that self-regulatory bodies have to meet in order for the Recognition Panel to be able to verify them. These are taken from Leveson’s recommendations, and include: • how the self-regulator appoints its board members; • how its funding is agreed; • that it must publish and maintain a standards code; • that it must handle complaints, and • that it must operate an arbitration scheme which allows for faster (and cheaper) settlement of libel, privacy and other cases
Some journalists remain unconvinced. This is from Patrick Hennessy, the Sunday Telegraph's political editor.
Updated
Is the Labour party bravely stepping forward to embrace the home affairs committee call for a royal commission that could lead to the decriminalisation of drugs? No fear. This is the party's official response, from Diana Johnson, a shadow Home Office minister, which carefully avoids giving any endorsement to decriminalisation.
This report raises a huge number of significant issues, from the risk of fragmentation of policing drug policy with the 20% cuts to police budgets, to the government’s lack of awareness of prescription drug dependency.The committee is right that this is a genuinely cross-governmental issue, and that the government just doesn’t get this. We need proper education on the dangers of drugs, yet the government scrapped compulsory lessons on drugs and alcohol. I am glad the committee agrees with the need for better education and the government can start by backing Labour's plans.And the Home Office needs to be far more active in dealing with emerging dangers, such as the threats from legal highs. Only a small number of banning orders have been issued under this government and they need to be far more pro active.The home secretary should not dismiss this report before having read it. We will study it thoroughly and urge the government to engage on this issue.
Michael Fabricant, the Conservative MP and a party vice-chairman, has backed the Commons home affairs committee report on drugs.
Updated
You can read all today's Guardian politics stories here. And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today's paper, are here.
As for the rest of the papers, here's the PoliticsHome list of top 10 must-reads, here's the ConservativeHome roundup of today's political storiesand here's the New Statesman list of top 10 comment articles.
And here are some stories and articles I found particularly interesting.
David Cameron’s attempts to claw back powers from Brussels have hit an early setback after a senior EU commissioner insisted that Britain could not simply pick and choose which European cross-border crimefighting powers it wants to adopt in future.The warning from Cecilia Malmström, EU home affairs commissioner, is likely to be a portent of things to come as Mr Cameron, prime minister, prepares to negotiate what he hopes will be a better EU membership deal for the UK ...The first test will come when Britain activates a provision in the Lisbon treaty allowing it to exercise in 2014 a mass opt-out of more than 130 policies to tackle cross-border terrorism and crime, including the European arrest warrant.Britain is then expected to try to “opt back in” on an individual basis to the laws it likes, but Ms Malmström infuriated Tory MPs after she told the FT that all other member states would first have to agree each measure.“On each of these opt-ins there will have to be a negotiation and the other member states will have to agree,” she said, adding that it would be complex because “of these 136 laws, many are very connected”.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Paterson, said: “Emphatically we should be looking at GM … I’m very clear it would be a good thing.“The trouble is all this stuff about Frankenstein foods and putting poisons in foods.“There are real benefits, and what you’ve got to do is sell the real environmental benefits.”Those benefits include a reduction in the use of pesticides because some GM crops are pest-resistant, he said. That in turn reduces farmers’ fuel use.
A plan to give ministers a bigger say in the appointment of their departments’ permanent secretaries has been blocked amid fears that it could lead to the politicisation of Britain’s impartial civil service.Francis Maude, Cabinet Office minister, had been pressing for secretaries of state to be allowed to choose their most senior civil servants from a shortlist of approved candidates.But the Financial Times has learnt that Sir David Normington, head of the Civil Service Commission, which oversees Whitehall appointments, will this week reject the proposal.He is expected to announce that an independent selection panel, chaired by the commissioner, will continue to decide which candidates to recommend.
The shale gas discovery is hateful to the Libs and the Greens, because it destroys their narrative about the ever rising cost of hydrocarbons. It is glorious news for humanity. It doesn’t need the subsidy of wind power. I don’t know whether it will work in Britain, but we should get fracking right away.
I'm off to the lobby briefing now. I'll post again after 11.30am.
Updated
I'm back from the lobby briefing. It was short and painless. I'll post a summary shortly.
In the meantime, I see that Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, has clarified the position about Scotland having to reapply to join the EU if it becomes independent.
Updated
Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing.
• John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, is considering whether to grant an urgent question on gay marriage. Ministers are due to announce details of their plan this week, possibly tomorrow, but that could come forward if Bercow grants the UQ.
• Downing Street confirmed that the government's plans will make it "absolutely clear" that faith organisations do not have to offer gay marriage if they do not want to.
• Number 10 sidestepped questions about whether the gay marriage announcement would coincide with an announcement about tax breaks for marriage. (There's a theory that traditionalists unhappy about gay marriage might be appeased by a tax break for married couples. In the Daily Telegraph today Tim Loughton, the Conservative former children's minister, has an article saying that time is running out if Cameron is going to honour his promise to introduce this tax break.)
• David Cameron is expected to make a statement in the Commons on Wednesday about the report into the murder of the solicitor Pat Finucane in Northern Ireland.
Updated
Earlier I mentioned the FT story about plans to allow cabinet ministers more involvement in the appointment of permanent secretaries being rejected by the Civil Service Commission, the body that oversees senior civil service appointments. (See 10.57am.)
The commission has now put out a press notice (pdf) explaining why it has come out against allowing cabinet ministers to have the final say.
Michael Ellis, a Conservative member of the Commons home affairs committee, has been explaining why he disagrees with his committee's report. As the minutes shows, he was one of three Conservative MPs on the committee who voted against some sections being included and he was the only MP who voted against when the committee had to decide if the report as a whole was being accepted. Here's what he told BBC News. I've taken the quote from PoliticsHome.
Our drugs policy in the United Kingdom has been working rather well in all the circumstances. There are considerable challenges but I see no need to move away from the policy of enforcement that we have.The Portuguese model is very far from perfect. They’ve seen, according to reports, increases in certain levels of crime and violence in Portugal and it’s not the way forward.
Updated
Here's the Guardian video of Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, talking about its drugs report.
Maria Miller, the culture secretary and minister for equalities, will be answering the gay marriage UQ, according to the culture department.
Lunchtime summary
• David Cameron has rejected the central recommendation of Commons committee report on drugs. Jeremy Browne, a Home Office minister, said Theresa May, the home secretary, was against setting up a royal commission to consider options including decriminalisation. (See 9.38am.) And Cameron made the same point himself, as the BBC reports.
Drugs use is coming down, the emphasis on treatment is absolutely right, and we need to continue with that to make sure we can really make a difference.Also, we need to do more to keep drugs out of our prisons.These are the government's priorities and I think we should continue with that rather than have some very, very long-term royal commission.
• Labour has published its six-clause draft bill to implement the Leveson report. But the Tories, who are opposed to legislation, have dismissed it as vague and not consistent with Leveson's recommendations. This is from a Tory source.
This new draft bill completely rejects the involvement of Ofcom. They have gone from accepting the report in full to rejecting one of the major recommendations. We will look at the proposals at the cross-party talks. We are going to make sure [the government draft bill] is ready for then.Not only have they u-turned, even they admit that their proposals are quite top line and don't address the details.
• The Civil Service Commission has rejected government calls for cabinet ministers to be allowed to choose their most senior civil servants. Instead permanent secretaries will continue to be selected by a civil service panel.
• Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, has said that a law banning "insulting" language and behaviour could safely be scrapped. As the Press Association reports, Starmer said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had changed its stance on cutting the word from Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. Campaigners said he had effectively removed the home secretary's "chief excuse" for resisting the change - that it would prevent people being prosecuted for swearing at police officers. Section 5 outlaws the use of "insulting words or behaviour" but opponents say there is too little clarity on what that includes, leading to spurious arrests. Starmer signalled the switch from the CPS in a letter to former West Midlands chief constable Lord Dear, who is seeking a law change in the Lords this week. Starmer told him the CPS had revised its opinion after "considering the case law in greater depth".
We are unable to identify a case in which the alleged behaviour leading to conviction could not properly be characterised as 'abusive' as well as 'insulting'. I therefore agree that the word 'insulting' could safely be removed without the risk of undermining the ability of the CPS to bring prosecutions.
• Nick Clegg has represented the government in Oslo where the European Union was awarded the Nobel peace price. David Cameron was one of only six EU leaders not to attend. Instead he is giving a speech to the parliamentary press gallery.
• Jack Dromey, the shadow housing minister, has published a private rented housing policy document floating plans to promote more long-term tenancies.
Updated
The press gallery lunch with David Cameron is still going on. On these occasion speakers are expected to make a short, reasonably funny speech, and then they take questions. Here, courtesty of Twitter, are the highlights so far.
PM tells Press Gallery the Opposition "which I don't underrate for one moment" is "not engaged" in central arguments of UK politics.PM stresses this Con govt has more "extremely radical policies" than prev Tory govts. Cites schools, welfare cap, police reform.Risque Dave's best gag so far. Cam says he has a 'tantric approach' to EU/ref policy. 'It will be even better when it does eventually come'Interesting that Cam not automatically signed up to TV debates for 2015 elxn. Says sometimes sucked the life out of the campaign.Cam says won't be "end of the world" if statutory underpinning introduced. But fears a bill will be amended to restrict press freedom.PM asked if needs more policies for northern voters. Admits ppl see Govt as too "hard, technocratic" not hearing how Govt on their sidePM:"Really this isn't about what happens in church,it's about what happens in the registry office". But law will protect churches' rightsVg Q from Roland Watson. Will No vote in your referendum mean EU exit? PM: "we have to show some tactical patience" but will expand "soon".Cam: "I don't want to leave EU."This is not an exercise" in trying to leave, It's bout trying to make UK "more comfortable within it"PM says only time he voted in reality tv show was for Will Young on xfactor + that's cos daughter asked him. Bit wasn't Nancy born later??
At the press gallery lunch where David Cameron speaking. Admits that now he's on twitter "trolls are my new favourite thing".PM tells the press gallery lunch that Nick Clegg will be along later to give his side - which will be a very similar message.On TV debates PM says they took all the life out of the campaign. But says he enjoyed them. (Really?) though admits they were quite dry.Cameron says he doesn't think there's a north/south problem with Govt. But admits they're not telling people how they are helping them.Cameron tells press gallery lunch he doesn't regret setting up #leveson inquiry.On a qu on whether we're seeing the unravelling of British institutions, PM says "I am a bit more positive than that". Gets biggest laugh.Cameron says he doesn't want Britain to leave the Single Market when asked about leaving EU.Cameron suggests that out of the EU we would still be ruled by the EU "In Norway they call it govt by fax"PM says Britain knows in heart needs to be part of organisation (Eu) a trading nation but on head need it to work better.PM describes death of nurse following hoax call to hospital as a "tragedy".PM says he wouldn't change that much If he revisited the rose garden of 2010. But admits he wished he'd Spent more time looking at processes
Cameron on heathrow: "let's not talk down heathrow ... One of the best airports in the world"
Asked about gay marriage at Press Gallery, PM says: "Marriage is a great institution, so why close it off to people who happen to be gay?"PM claims "there has been a big clean-up operation" after expenses scandal & MPs are "working their way back into the public's good books".PM says "not remotely going to confront" Tory MPs who want to leave EU. "This is a broad church." His big Europe speech will be in New Year.
Cameron promises big speech on Europe "soon " but still wont say whenIf Boris went on I'm A Celebrity Cameron says I "might be tempted to vote for him " did not watch Nadine
David Cameron believes Barosso's intervention is "significant"; believes Alex Salmond wants to "have his cake & eat it" on indyPM says he thinks the "settled will" of the Conservative Party on the EU is the same as that of the country, ie wanting continued membership
Updated
My colleague Michael White was at the press gallery lunch where David Cameron was speaking earlier. (See 2pm.) He's sent me this.
As already widely reported, David Cameron was in relaxed-but-sharp Christmas form at today's Westminster press gallery lunch. When the event's chairman, Tim Shipman, of the Mail said he had been seeking a guest "who holds our future in the palm of our hands" he loudly muttered "Blair" when Shipman actually meant Lord Justice Leveson who was not available - unlike the PM for whom it provided an excuse not to attend the Nobel peace prize award to the EU in Oslo. Cameron also joked about the closure of a major British publication ("I was sad the Dandy went") and wondered if the only way to unite the Guardian and the Mail over Leveson would be to say "all those who hate Tony Blair, come in here".The thrust of his speech was to argue that, despite the complexity of coalition, the government is taking radical, long-term decisions on the big challenges of our time like energy, immigration, the economy, health and education (no previous government tackled the state schools monopoly, he said, irony-free) whereas Labour is not saying much on much. He and Nick Clegg are actually saying much the same thing most of the time. Is the message getting across, especially in the North? Not well enough when people are grappling with tough times - "the further you get away from London, the more than argument counts."Gay marriage (the right thing to do, but it's OK to differ), the EU (he wants to stay in, but on revised terms), the Severn Barrage (early days, but basically pro), Boris Johnson ("I have very little control over what Boris does") – he handled them all without much sweat and the jokes were good-natured. When I asked him what he'd do differently if he were starting again he said he'd not appreciated the extent to which judicial review, assorted consultations and other impediments to action had "gummed up process" since he was a special adviser 20 years ago. In opposition the Cameroons should have spent more time worrying about "the time it takes to get things done."Tony Blair felt much the same.
Updated
Here's an afternoon reading list.
Miliband is ignoring one of the golden rules of opposition politics: any policy stance that has you playing defence is a bad policy stance. We have been told consistently by Miliband and his lieutenants that by unveiling details of their thinking on welfare reform – and other contentious issues – they would be playing into the Tory’s hands. Well, that’s precisely what Ed Miliband has now done. And it’s not because he’s adopted a position on welfare. It’s because he’s adopted the wrong position.What’s more, it’s not even a position that stands scrutiny on its own terms. Miliband is going to try to argue that his stance on welfare is somehow motivated by a desire to stand with “the strivers”. But at the same time as he’s opposing a freeze on welfare, he’s actually advocating a freeze on public sector pay. Is this seriously going to be Miliband’s offer in 2015? nurses, teachers and police officers having their wages frozen to allow for increases for those on benefits?
Earlier I flagged up an article by Dan Hodges attacking Ed Miliband for making a tactical mistake in opposing the government's welfare cuts. (A colleague objected, on the gounds that Dan Hodges criticising Miliband does not count as news.) But now Jacqui Smith, the Labour former home secretary, is saying something similar in an article for Progress.
One of the most surprising things about George Osborne’s omnishambles budget statement was that it undermined his reputation as a canny – some might say devious – political operator. The autumn statement has gone some way to restoring this reputation. His proposal to cap benefit payment increases has set a potential trap for Labour. We need a much more sophisticated response than that suggested by the headline in Sunday’s Observer – ‘Ed Miliband to wage war on Osborne over benefit cuts’.Within the article a ‘senior Labour figure’ suggested that there was a ‘caucus of “new Labour” figures believing it will be politically suicidal to leave the party open to charges that it sides with ‘scroungers’ and is in denial over the need to cut the benefits bill’. I’m sure this wasn’t meant as a good thing by the ‘senior Labour figure’, but frankly you can count me into this ‘caucus’. And incidentally I’m pretty sure it would include a large number of people who’ve knocked on doors recently and been told that the problem for Labour is that they think we caused the deficit and they’re not yet convinced we know how we’ll solve it.
Maria Miller's statement on gay marriage
Maria Miller, the culture secretary and equalities minister, is responding to the gay marriage urgent question now.
Miller says the government will publish its plans tomorrow.
She supports gay marriage, she says.
The government's plans will ensure that faith organisations do not have to conduct gay marriages. The chances of this being successfully challenged in the European court of human rights are "negligible".
Edward Leigh, the Conservative MP who tabled the urgent question, says David Cameron said at the weekend the government's plans would allow gay marriage in church.
This was not in the consultation, he says.
In the light of that, will there be a new consultation?
The state should not be involved in redefining marriage, he says.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary and shadow equalities minister, says Labour supports gay marriage.
Labour took various decisions to tackle discrimination, she says.
Freedom of religion should mean faith groups like the Quakers being able to celebrate gay marriage.
She says that Edward Leigh is wrong about the state having no role in marriage. The state, quite rightly, modernised marriage law, she says. Until the 1990s women could be legally raped within marriage.
Chris Bryant, the Labour MP, says the 1662 prayer book talks about marriage involving "the one" giving comfort to "the other". Shouldn't gay people be allowed to get married?
Miller says this is a rare issue on which she and Bryant agree.
Updated
Ian Paisley, the DUP MP, says article 12 of the European convention of human rights will apply to gay marriages. Will the government seek a derogation from article 12?
Miller says she will announce the detail in relation to the plans tomorrow.
Freedom on both sides has to be respected.
Miller says this is a devolved matter. The Northern Ireland government may take a different view from the Westminster government.
David Burrowes, a Conservative, says the consultation could be seen as a sham.
Miller says all responses have been considered. The consultation has shaped the government's view, she says.
Stephen Doughty, the new Labour MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, asks if Miller agrees that most parents want their children to be happy rather than not wanting them to be gay. That's a dig at the Tory MP David Davies. (See 3.15pm.)
Miller says parents want their children to be happy. Whether they are gay or not is up to them.
David Nuttall, a Conservative, asks if the government has any plans to change the definition of any other words.
No, says Miller.
Labour's Andrew Slaughter asks what Miller thought of David Davies's comments. (See 3.15pm.)
Miller says people should be free to say what they want.
Peter Bone, a Conservative, asks why the government briefed a new policy over the weekend.
Miller says she was always planning to make a statement this week. She has brought her statement forward to tomorrow.
Mike Freer, a Conservative, says gay marriage is in the best Conservative tradition of extending choice while preserving religious freedom.
Julian Brazier, a Conservative, asks for an assurance that no teacher will face prosecution or civil action for espousing a Christian view of marriage.
Miller says teachers will still be able to express their Christian beliefs. There is a great deal of scaremongering about this.
Labour's Lilian Greenwood asks if gay couples will be able to get married in a church.
Miller says David Cameron was setting out his personal view when he said that that was what he favoured. The government's plans will be announced tomorrow.
Labour's Huw Irranca-Davies asks if civil parternships will be made available to heterosexual couples.
Miller says the announcement tomorrow will cover civil partnerships. But civil partnerships were never intended as a substitute for marriage, and so the government should not be trying to extend them in that way, she says.
Nadhim Zahawi, a Conservative, says 16 states in the US banned inter-racial marriage until 1967. Discrimination is the big issue, he says.
Robert Halfon, a Conservative, says hundreds of his constituents are worried about the prospect of a legal challenge.
Miller says there are clear protections in the European convention around religious belief.
Updated
Jason McCartney, a Conservative, says he is looking forward to the day when people don't talk about gay marriage or straight marriage, but just marriage.
Updated
Matthew Offord, a Conservative, asks if the government will allow a consultation on polygamy.
Miller says the law is clear on this. Marriage is between two people, she says.
Michael Ellis, a Conservative, says allowing gay marriage would not weaken marriage for heterosexual people.
Miller agrees. She wants to extend marriage.
What I want to see is more people being married in the future.
Iain Stewart, a Conservative, asks if any other European countries that allow gay marriage have been forced to allow churches to conduct gay marriages.
Miller says this has not happened in any of the other EU countries, like Denmark, Spain and Canada, where gay marriage is allowed.
Rehman Chishti, a Conservative, says that, coming from a Muslim background, he would like to know about the Muslim reaction to the consultation.
Miller says that Muslim groups had concerns that were similar to those expressed by other faith groups.
It's over. With Miller unable to give any detail, it was rather tedious. And we're going to have go through it all again tomorrow.
I'll post a summary shortly.
Afternoon summary
• Nick Clegg has issued what may be veiled criticism of David Cameron for not attending the ceremony to mark the award of the Nobel peace prize to the EU. In a statement about his own attendance at Oslo, Clegg said: "At the start of what will be another busy week for European co-operation it has been helpful to speak to Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande and other leaders about pressing issues such as banking reform and the EU budget."
• Liam Fox, the Conservative former defence secretary, has accused EU officials of living in a "parallel universe". He made the comments in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute.
As the unelected bureaucrats bask in their reflected glory in Oslo, they might want to spare a thought for the millions of Europeans, especially young Europeans, who find themselves with no other prize to show for the EU project than unemployment and fear for the future ...Today's spectacle is as clear an example as you can get of the parallel universe that the Commission and the unelected political class of Brussels live within.As they take their balcony bow like some latter-day medieval monarchs, they will be in full self congratulatory mode.This is the same Commission that, in the prime minister's words, 'did not offer a single euro in savings' at the EU budget talks, while over a half of young Spaniards joined the dole queues.Complacent, conceited and with pretensions that show how little they have understood the changes in the rest of the world, they have made 'ever closer union' a rigid ideology to be implemented whatever the will of the peoples of Europe and at whatever the cost.The Nobel Peace Prize simply plays in to this otherworldly mindset.
• Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's deputy first minister, has dismissed suggestions that an independent Scotland might have to reapply for EU membership. "No serious person can argue that it is anything other than in the interests of the EU to keep Scotland in continuous membership, given this country's huge natural resources in energy and other aspects which make us such a valuable European partner," she said.
• Some Tory MPs have expressed their opposition to gay marriage. "The state has no right to redefine people's marriages," Edward Leigh told MPs as he asked an urgent question on the matter. Responding, Maria Miler, the culture secretary and equalities minister, said the government's proposals would be published tomorrow.
