Tory Baroness Stowell who guided equal marriage through the House of Lords promoted to junior minister

Baroness Stowell of Beeston, the Tory peer who was in charge of guiding the equal marriage bill for England and Wales through the House of Lords, has been promoted during the government reshuffle.

Baroness Stowell, the former Head of Corporate Affairs for the BBC, has been made a junior minister at the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The Baroness is to be a Parliamentary Under Secretary at the department. She has been a spokeswoman on women and equalities and for the Department for Work and Pensions in the House of Lords.

The move was confirmed in a tweet from the official Number 10 Twitter account on Monday, as more changes were announced amid the reshuffle.

Baroness Stowell has been appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary at @CommunitiesUK #reshuffle

— UK Prime Minister (@Number10gov) October 7, 2013

Also promoted to Under Secretary in the same department was openly gay Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams.

Baroness Stowell during debate around the equal marriage bill used a fictional marriage to actor George Clooney, in order to explain to the House the difference between adultery and unacceptable behaviour.

During the nine hours of debate on the first day of Report stage for the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, Labour peer Lord Winston, the doctor and television presenter, as well as Baroness Stowell both made the observation that children “do better” when raised by same-sex parents.

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