Tory health spokesman Tim Loughton has placed his party in a perilous position by imposing a three-line whip in a Commons debate on adoption.

The East Worthing and Shoreham MP was repeatedly interrupted by former Cabinet minister Michael Portillo, who asked why the Conservative leadership had not allowed a free vote on the moral issue of whether gay or unmarried couples should be allowed to adopt children.

After receiving no satisfactory answer, Mr Portillo and seven other colleagues, including Horsham MP Francis Maude, voted to allow these couples to adopt. One Shadow Minister, John Bercow, resigned on the issue.

Another 35 MP abstained, including Nick Gibb (Bognor), Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex), Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) and Howard Flight (Arundel).

Congratulations to these MPs, most of them normally loyal, who simply could not stomach the attitude of Mr Loughton and Opposition leader Iain Duncan Smith.

Only last month, Mr Duncan Smith told the party conference the Tories must understand the way life in Britain is lived today and not the way it was lived 20 years ago.

Yet Mr Loughton and his leader failed last night to allow MPs to vote with their conscience, which would have been a classic case of accepting that some people lead different ways of life.

It will make most people see the Tories as even more out of touch than they did before.

Tim Loughton should follow Mr Bercow's example and resign from the Shadow Cabinet before any further damage is done.