Osborne insists economy is priority

George Osborne has insisted the Government is "straining every effort" to tackling the economy as he indicated controversial reforms of the House of Lords and plans for gay marriage were being kicked into the long grass.

The Chancellor said he had taken the message from voters that ministers should be focusing "on the things that really matter" rather than getting "distracted" by too many other issues.

Mr Osborne said that while he was personally in favour of gay marriage, there had never been plans to bring forward a Bill in next week's Queen's speech.

He said the party was committed in its manifesto to "looking" at Lords reform but it was "not the priority of the Government".

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