"As Home Secretary, Jack Straw blocked moves to introduce Registered Partnerships. No wonder nobody believes a word they say."

Labour have consistently rejected the introduction of Registered Partnerships in the past. In 2000, Jack Straw - then Home Secretary - said:

"[Marriage is]... about a union for the procreation of children, which by definition can only happen between a heterosexual couple. So I see no circumstances in which we would ever bring forward proposals for so-called gay marriages"
JACK STRAW, the Home Secretary, The Times, 2 October 2000.

He was reaffirming Government policy. In 1999 he told the House of Commons that Labour would not introduce Registered Partnerships:

"Mr. Stuart Bell (Middlesbrough) [Labour]: The House is listening carefully to my right hon. Friend's description of what happens in other European countries in relation to the age of consent. Does he recall the letter that he wrote to me over the summer in which he gave a firm and clear statement of Government policy - that there would be no reduction in the age of consent to 14 for homosexual acts in our country, that no legalisation of homosexual marriages would be proposed by the Government, and that there would be no legal adoption of children by homosexual couples?

"Mr. Straw: I can give my hon. Friend the undertakings that he seeks in respect of each of those propositions. We have no plans whatever to introduce legislation in respect of any of them."
House of Commons, Hansard, 25 January 1999, col. 22.