A majority of the party voted against the motion, arguing that any legislation banning the practice would need to ensure safeguards for churches.
Chat with Michael Gove New Radio 4 PodcastsBaroness Foster explained why she chose to abstain.
“I knew one of our members had a daughter who was gay – and to try to defuse the situation, I said, ‘Okay, let’s just abstain.'”
“It was a non-binding vote. But just say abstention and people got really angry about it, and that was the trigger for my dismissal, which was a week later.”
Baroness Foster, who later quit the political front entirely, said the party was also dissatisfied with the way Brexit negotiations were handled during Boris Johnson’s tenure as prime minister.
She also said some within the DUP were unhappy with the coronavirus rules, which Baroness Foster was tasked with co-leading the response in the power-sharing administration, which had “created difficulties”.
“Because of COVID, a lot of things are happening remotely and I don’t see a lot of things happening to me,” the former Northern Ireland first minister said.
“Certainly not the scale of what happened and the way it happened, because no one really came to me and said: ‘Oh, by the way, I think you should step down, it’s time for you to go’.
“No one came to me and said that, but the way they did it was to get signatures on a letter of no confidence and that’s what happened.”
She said that while some of those involved in the move later apologized, “the damage had been done” and described it as a part of her life that was not particularly pleasant.
