MPs voted in favour of the Same Sex Marriage

Party leaders welcome the backing for same-sex marriage in          England and Wales in a key Commons vote, but opponents continue to raise concerns.

Parliament took a historic step towards embracing full equality for gay people when MPs voted on Tuesday overwhelmingly in favour of equal marriage at the end of a charged Commons debate that exposed the deep rift over David Cameron's modernising agenda at the heart of the Conservative party.

The result meant the prime minister, who won the support of an estimated 127 Tory MPs, including one teller, failed to win more than half of his 303 MPs.