GAY couples are to receive rights similar to those of married heterosexuals under a government bill to be unveiled this week.

The proposals for officially recognised gay “marriages” include the possibility for local authorities to hold ceremonies similar to a civil wedding. Couples will be able to sign a book in their local register office.

There would be an announcement in advance of the couple’s commitment to one another similar to the reading of banns in church before a wedding.

The Civil Partnerships Bill, to be unveiled on Wednesday, will also confer on same-sex couples property privileges similar to those of married couples. They will not have to pay inheritance tax on property passed between them after death and will gain similar pension rights to heterosexual couples.

If a civil partnership goes wrong, a divorce-style procedure in court — possibly complete with child maintenance arrangements — would follow.

Labour’s introduction of the first laws giving legal rights to homosexual couples comes as the Tories find their own attempts to relaunch themselves as gay-friendly run into trouble.

Andre Walker, an aide to the Tory vice-chairman Andrew Rosindell, said on a BBC radio show last week that gay marriages were “deeply offensive to religious people” and that homosexuality should be “tolerated but not encouraged”.

“I’m saying that a gay relationship is inferior to a heterosexual relationship. I’m sorry if that offends people but sooner or later that was going to come through,” he said.

The comments have angered senior Conservatives, who are hosting a “gay summit” at Westminster tomorrow as they try to present a more tolerant image.

They hoped the summit would convince gay lobby groups and the public that the party no longer merely backed conventional family values.

Gay-friendly Tory initiatives, including policies to tackle homophobic bullying in schools and end discrimination against gays in the pension and insurance markets, were intended to draw a line under past rows over the section 28 ban on local authorities promoting homosexuality.

Charles Hendry, the deputy chairman behind tomorrow’s summit, admitted that Walker’s remarks and their timing were “extremely disappointing”.

“This makes the work that we are doing all the more difficult and emphasises the fact that the summit is the start of a journey for the party rather than a conclusion,” he said.

In an attempt to defuse the embarrassing row, Walker this weekend sent Hendry a letter of apology in which he retracted his remarks.

Under Michael Howard’s leadership, the Conservatives have already alienated some traditionalists by choosing Margot James, a lesbian businesswoman, to fight the central London seat of Holborn and St Pancras at the next election.

Ann Widdecombe, the former shadow home secretary, has dismissed the Tories’ decision to host tomorrow’s summit as “complete nonsense” while John Hayes, a current frontbencher, is among MPs planning to vote against the civil partnership bill. Howard plans to support it.

Both major parties have a long way to go before they can hope to displace the Liberal Democrats as the gay favourite. A poll released this weekend by the Gay.com website shows 68% intend to vote for Charles Kennedy’s party at the next general election, while 15% will back Labour and only 5% the Conservatives.

More than half were cynical about Tory motives in organising the summit, and Howard is seen as less gay-friendly than either William Hague or Iain Duncan Smith.

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