Today the Government has announced the detail of its plans to introduce equal marriage.

As a long standing campaigner for LGBT equality, I welcome this important step and am pleased too that some faiths that want to marry LGBT couples may be able to do so.

MPs are to be given a free vote on the subject on the grounds that it is a matter of conscience – it’s also a matter of basic human rights and I hope that MPs use their free vote to support the freedom to marry.

A positive vote will still not deliver complete equality though.

So I will continue to campaign for opposite sex couples to have access to civil partnerships and for choice for those - including, for example, in the Church of England - who want to be able to offer same sex and opposite sex couples the right to equal marriage.