Rasen MP: ‘Misleading picture’ given over sex-ed vote

In a letter to the Market Rasen Mail, Sir Edward Leigh said last week’s report on the Relationships and Sex Education regulations, which he voted against, gave a ‘misleading picture’.

He continued: “While a small part of these proposals related to LGBT-inclusive relationships and sex education, the regulations were taken as a whole, not considered individually, and this was not the part that I spoke against in the Commons.

“The reason I voted against them was that they introduce new state powers over children and the family, restricting the rights of parents as the primary educators which is recognised in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, both of which the UK is a signatory to.

“Conservatives have traditionally opposed any attempts to nationalise the family and subvert the rights of parents to guide their children’s education.

“Recently I had the privilege of welcoming a group of Orthodox Jews to the House of Parliament.

“The Jewish community have been educating their children for five thousand years. Why should the Education Secretary get in the way?

“The report also implied that my reference to extending the rights of civil partnerships to platonic cohabiting siblings was somehow mocking, whereas I have been speaking in favour of this for years.

“The law of civil partnerships does not imply any sexual relationship, and Lord Lexden’s bill seeking to extend civil partnerships to siblings is currently being considered in Parliament.

“The report notes that the Market Rasen Mail contacted me for comment, but failed to mention that my office responded within 24-hours and provided clarification on the matter that would have prevented the misleading portrayal the Mail decided to print.”