Lynne Featherstone appointed Under-Secretary of State for Equalities

12.49.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 14th May 2010

Lynne Featherstone MP is the Under-Secretary of State for Equalities

Lynne Featherstone, formerly the Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Equality, has been appointed a Home Office minister. She will be the Under-Secretary of State for Equalities in the new coalition Government. Lynne has a superb record on equalities. She lead on the Equality Bill with Lib Dem amendments for trans equality and on removing the blood donation ban, which were rejected by Labour.

On her blog, Lynne said, "I realised that this is a huge opportunity to change things for the better. I will be able to do - not just to say. For two years as Shadow Equalities spokesperson - through the Equality Bill, through countless speeches to groups , through our conference policy papers on Women and Youth - it has always been about what Lib Dems would do about equality if we were in government."

The coalition agreement between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives does not cover LGBT equality issues. The 57 Liberal Democrat MPs in Government retain independence to continue to support LGBT equality.

Related Link:

Lynne's Blog: "Doing - Not Saying!".