Cameron appoints anti-equality MP as Minister for Equalities

As part of his ongoing Cabinet reshuffle, David Cameron has appointed anti-gay marriage MP Caroline Dinenage as the Minister for Equalities – and if this article contains any spelling errors, it’s because our eyes have rolled so far into the back of our head that we can no longer see.

The MP for Gosport has landed the role of Parliamentary under secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice and the Minister for Equalities at the Department for Education, despite stating in 2013 that the state had “no right” to ‘redfine’ marriage to include LGBT people.

Ms Dinenage voted against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill at its Second Reading in the House of Commons in 2013, and was absent for the Bill’s Third Reading.

In 2013, the 43-year-old wrote that the Church states that “marriage is in its nature a union of ‘one man and one woman’, and went on to say “the insitution of marriage is distinctive.”

Of plans to introduce same-sex marriage, she added: “These proposals were not included in any of the three main manifestoes nor did it feature in the Coalition’s Programme for Government. As I have mentioned, under current law same-sex couples can have a civil partnership but not a civil marriage and I believe that there is no legitimate reason to change this.

“Preventing same-sex couples from being allowed to ‘marry’ takes nothing away from their relationship.”

Caroline Dinenage is the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice. She is also Minister for Equalities at DfE.

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) May 12, 2015

The news comes just a day after Mr Cameron appointed Maldon MP John Whittingdale – who has consistently voted against gay rights legislation including equal marriage over the last 20 years – to the role of Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, who also voted against equal marriage before backtracking and saying she was “proud” of the progress LGBT rights have made in the UK, will keep her position as part of the reshuffle.

The Conservatives won 331 seats at last week’s general election, giving the party an absolute majority of 5 seats. You can check out the party’s LGBT election manifesto here.

In This Article: