North’s marriage vote ‘momentous’

Campaigners for same sex civil marriage in the North have hailed a first Stormont vote in favour of a law change as a “significant milestone”, even though the proposal fell due to a DUP blocking mechanism.

In a tight vote, 53 MLAs voted for a law change and 52 voted against, with one abstention.

However, the “petition of concern” tabled by the DUP at the outset of the debate meant the proposal could only have succeeded if a sufficient number of both unionist and nationalist MLAs backed it. Given the DUP is the largest unionist party, that was not going to happen. Even if the motion had been carried, the Stormont executive could only ever legislate in the current mandate with DUP support.