Conservative heavyweights Michael Portillo and Ken Clarke were among eight Tory MPs who defied a three-line party whip by voting with the government to allow unmarried couples to adopt. Thirty-five other Tories stayed away from the Commons. Tories who voted against the three-line whip and with the government to allow unmarried and gay couples to adopt were:
- John Bercow (Buckingham)
- Kenneth Clarke (Rushcliffe)
- David Curry (Skipton & Ripon)
- Miss Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove)
- Andrew Lansley (Cambridgeshire South)
- Andrew Mackay (Bracknell)
- Francis Maude (Horsham)
- Michael Portillo (Kensington & Chelsea)
Tories who did not vote were:
- Peter Ainsworth (Surrey East)
- David Atkinson (Bournemouth East)
- Crispin Blunt (Reigate)
- Mrs Angela Browning (Tiverton & Honiton)
- David Cameron (Witney)
- Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold)
- Stephen Dorrell (Charnwood)
- Alan Duncan (Rutland & Melton)
- Peter Duncan (Galloway & Upper Nithsdale)
- Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley)
- Michael Fabricant (Lichfield)
- Howard Flight (Arundel & South Downs)
- Edward Garnier (Harborough)
- Nick Gibb (Bognor Regis & Littlehampton)
- Damien Green (Ashford)
- Douglas Hogg (Sleaford & North Hykeham)
- Michael Howard (Folkestone & Hythe)
- Boris Johnson (Henley)
- Robert Key (Salisbury)
- Dr Andrew Murrison (Westbury)
- Archie Norman (Tunbridge Wells)
- George Osborne (Tatton)
- Richard Ottaway (Croydon South)
- Mrs Marion Roe (Broxbourne)
- David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds)
- Richard Shepherd (Aldridge-Brownhills)
- Nicholas Soames (Sussex Mid)
- Richard Spring (Suffolk West)
- Sir John Stanley (Tonbridge & Malling)
- Anthony Steen (Totnes)
- Andrew Tyrie (Chichester)
- Robert Walter (Dorset North)
- John Whittingdale (Maldon & Chelmsford East)
- John Wilkinson (Ruislip-Northwood)
- Tim Yeo (Suffolk South)
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