The comments capped the last day of the annual meeting and came
as part of a bigger address on the state of the nation and modern
politics.
Dissecting a number of key hot topics, including: war and the
armed forces, the current economic climate - both domestically and
in Europe - plus the summer's British riots and the state of modern
education, he also made an impassioned reference to same-sex
marriage.
"I once stood before a Conservative conference and said it
shouldn't matter whether commitment was between a man and a woman,
a woman and a woman, or a man and another man," he said.
"You applauded me for that. Five years on, we're consulting on
legalising gay marriage. And to anyone who has reservations, I say:
Yes, it's about equality, but it's also about something else:
commitment. Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that
society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support
each other.
"So I don't support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I
support gay marriage because I'm a Conservative."
Earlier this year, Cameron held the second annual coalition
reception of LGBT media at 10 Downing Street.
Despite this, critics have been vocal about the coalition
government's plans to legislate same-sex marriages in England and
Wales by 2015.
James Asser, Co-Chair of LGBT Labour comments: "LGBT Labour is
encouraged see plans announced on making progress towards marriage
equality, which is a subject LGBT Labour has campaigned actively
on. We will take part in the consultation process and will be
lobbying hard to ensure marriage equality gets as wide support as
possible.
"We are however concerned that the consultation has been delayed
until March 2012. The Equalities Minister orginally announced in
February that it would take place in July; it was then put back to
the Autumn and now delayed again. It is not clear why it will take
over a year from the original announcement for the consultation to
start or what guarantees there are that there won't be further
delay in the Spring."
