Lynne Featherstone, member of parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green until the Liberal Democrat rout of 2015, is a woman who knows how to make the most of the opportunities that come her way. Although she spent the majority of her career in government on the lowest rung of the ministerial ladder she amply demonstrates that in politics it is not the job you are given that matters, it is what you choose to do with it.
Featherstone was not one of those Liberal Democrats who wanted to cosy up to her Tory colleagues. She was widely regarded, as she admits herself, as a bit of a ‘wild card’. She made plenty of noise, ruffled a lot of feathers and in the process managed to punch well above her weight as a junior member of the junior party in a coalition dominated by people who did not share her priorities. She did not much care what people thought of her so long as they listened to her arguments and in the end those arguments carried the day.
Recently elevated to the House of Lords, Featherstone has written a book that suggests she now cares rather more about her reputation and wants recognition for what she regards as her greatest political achievement, equal marriage. The subtitle gives it away: ‘The fight for same sex marriage – and how I made it happen’.
There was never any doubt about the scale of the opposition she faced. Whether from within the cabinet, vast swaths of the Tory party, most religious leaders, and the many ‘disgusted’ letter-writers of Tunbridge Wells and elsewhere, hostility to the equal marriage bill was vocal, frequently ugly and often unashamedly homophobic.
Featherstone was convinced all the counter-arguments were invalid. She was bemused by the tangle Stonewall got itself into when its then chief executive, Ben Summerskill, questioned whether same-sex marriage was either necessary or affordable. But she underestimates the number of LGBT people who were genuinely uncertain whether we wanted to ape a heterosexual model of commitment that was clearly not a guarantee of happiness.
She cannot resist the occasional dig at Labour – she is a Liberal Democrat after all. Her fear that the party might be ‘defensive and therefore oppositionist’ despite its proud record on equalities is gratuitous. Elsewhere, though, she gives credit to those who helped make it happen and pays particular tribute to an unlikely ally, the home secretary, Theresa May. Indeed, her analysis supports the view that it was May and not the author herself who ‘made it happen’. Featherstone could argue, cajole and apply pressure. More than once Theresa had the power to say yes or no. Fortunately she always said yes.
By 2013 when the act became law, equal marriage was an all but unstoppable force. All around the world more conservative nations than ours were recognising and legislating for the principle of equality. So Featherstone’s claim that without her it would never have happened mars an otherwise excellent account. She reminds us that the battle for equality is not yet fully won. There is unfinished business on civil partnerships for straight couples and on the rights of people wanting to change gender after marriage. But the reform she championed was worth fighting for and she demonstrates that for a progressive politician it is always better to be in power – even under a prime minister whose politics you may dislike – than in impotent opposition.
The book could have done with both an index and some rebalancing. The epilogue opens up a whole new area of policy when it discusses her role as a minister at the Department for International Development trying to advance LGBT rights around the world. I worked with her closely on this when I was executive director of the Kaleidoscope Trust charity. The issues are complex and fascinating and her contribution was magnificent. But perhaps that will be the subject of a future book by a woman whose record should remind us all that as progressives we have allies in other parties who can occasionally take forward the fight in government when we are no longer in a position to do so.
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Lance Price is a former special adviser at No 10 and Labour party director of communications. He was a founder of the Kaleidoscope Trust. The updated paperback of his latest book, The Modi Effect, is published on 10 March 2016
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Equal Ever After: After The fight for same-sex marriage – and how I made it happen
Lynne Featherstone
BiteBack Publishing | 336pp | £14.99