diff --git a/horizon/test/patches.py b/horizon/test/patches.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e827aea873
--- /dev/null
+++ b/horizon/test/patches.py
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+import HTMLParser as _HTMLParser
+import re
+
+
+def parse_starttag_patched(self, i):
+    """This method is a patched version of the parse_starttag method from
+    django.utils.html_parser.HTMLParser class, used to patch bug 1273943.
+    The code is taken from file django/utils/html_parser.py, commit 6bc1b22299.
+    """
+    self.__starttag_text = None
+    endpos = self.check_for_whole_start_tag(i)
+    if endpos < 0:
+        return endpos
+    rawdata = self.rawdata
+    self.__starttag_text = rawdata[i:endpos]
+
+    # Now parse the data between i+1 and j into a tag and attrs
+    attrs = []
+    tagfind = re.compile('([a-zA-Z][-.a-zA-Z0-9:_]*)(?:\s|/(?!>))*')
+    match = tagfind.match(rawdata, i + 1)
+    assert match, 'unexpected call to parse_starttag()'
+    k = match.end()
+    self.lasttag = tag = match.group(1).lower()
+
+    while k < endpos:
+        m = _HTMLParser.attrfind.match(rawdata, k)
+        if not m:
+            break
+        attrname, rest, attrvalue = m.group(1, 2, 3)
+        if not rest:
+            attrvalue = None
+        elif attrvalue[:1] == '\'' == attrvalue[-1:] or \
+                    attrvalue[:1] == '"' == attrvalue[-1:]:
+            attrvalue = attrvalue[1:-1]
+        if attrvalue:
+            attrvalue = self.unescape(attrvalue)
+        attrs.append((attrname.lower(), attrvalue))
+        k = m.end()
+
+    end = rawdata[k:endpos].strip()
+    if end not in (">", "/>"):
+        lineno, offset = self.getpos()
+        if "\n" in self.__starttag_text:
+            lineno = lineno + self.__starttag_text.count("\n")
+            offset = len(self.__starttag_text) \
+                     - self.__starttag_text.rfind("\n")
+        else:
+            offset = offset + len(self.__starttag_text)
+        self.error("junk characters in start tag: %r"
+                   % (rawdata[k:endpos][:20],))
+    if end.endswith('/>'):
+        # XHTML-style empty tag: <span attr="value" />
+        self.handle_startendtag(tag, attrs)
+    else:
+        self.handle_starttag(tag, attrs)
+        if tag in self.CDATA_CONTENT_ELEMENTS:
+            self.set_cdata_mode(tag)    # <--------------------------- Changed
+    return endpos
diff --git a/horizon/test/settings.py b/horizon/test/settings.py
index 1502b79dcd..391f6f536b 100644
--- a/horizon/test/settings.py
+++ b/horizon/test/settings.py
@@ -20,7 +20,15 @@
 
 import os
 import socket
+import sys
 
+import django
+from django.utils import html_parser
+from horizon.test import patches
+
+# Patch django.utils.html_parser.HTMLParser as a workaround for bug 1273943
+if django.get_version() == '1.4' and sys.version_info[:3] > (2, 7, 3):
+    html_parser.HTMLParser.parse_starttag = patches.parse_starttag_patched
 
 socket.setdefaulttimeout(1)