ROMSEY Tory MP, Caroline Nokes, has rejected claims of hypocrisy aimed at her by students over her stance on calls to allow gay people to marry.

Southampton University Labour Club claimed the MP snubbed its Equal Marriage Campaign petition despite telling students during a visit that she was sympathetic to their cause.

The student group think straight people should be able to have civil partnerships that only gay partners can legally have and, in turn, homosexuals and lesbians should be able to marry. Student, Jacob Saxton, 19, said Southampton Test’s Labour MP, Alan Whitehead, and Eastleigh Lib-Dem MP, Chris Huhne, were publically supportive of the idea.

“However, while Mrs Nokes has told students at the university that she supports gay marriage, she has not signed the petition. It is hypocrisy.”

The petition has 917 names so far. But Mrs Nokes claimed she was dubious about signing a Labour Party petition when she was a Tory MP. She also claimed the petition form was sent to her without a return address.

She added: “My own point of view is very much that there should be equal marriage rights but I don’t think any religious faith organisations should be obliged to hold marriages if they do not want to or if it is against their beliefs.”