Clegg flies the gay pride flag after marriage intervention
Nick Clegg capped off a week in which he pushed the government further on gay marriage by flying a pride flag from his office windows.
The flag is flying to coincide with this weekend's march, which has been hit by under-funding and allegations of calculated obstruction at City Hall.
''I'm absolutely delighted that, with a little bit of persuasion and determination, we've been able to fly the rainbow flag for this weekend's festivities. I hope this is the start of a new era of pride across the historic Whitehall village," the deputy prime minister said.
The flying of the flag comes just a day after Clegg broke ranks and said religious groups should be able to hold gay marriages in their church if they wanted to.
The current government proposals would legalise gay marriage but prevent it in church – even if the organisation wants to hold one.
Labour recently joined with Quakers, liberal Jews and others to demand the proposed change to the law goes further – and Clegg appeared to join their ranks in an interview with the Evening Standard yesterday.
"This is a personal view at the moment, but I think that in exactly the same way that we shouldn't force any church to conduct gay marriage, we shouldn't stop any church that wants to conduct gay marriage," he said.
Meanwhile, plans for tomorrow's Gay Pride march continue to be in disarray. Floats have been banned, the start time moved two hours ahead and a Soho street party cancelled.
Organisers failed to pay upfront for their supplier costs, but many activists are accusing Boris Johnson's office of purposefully putting new obstacles ahead of planners to prevent it going ahead.
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