First civil partnership for a woman MP

MB September 28, 2008, 8:56 am

Angela Eagle, Labour MP for Wallasey, has gone through a civil partnership ceremony with her partner of 18 years, Maria Exall, a BT engineer and trade union activist.

The ceremony took place yesterday at the Southwark Registry Office in South London, followed by a celebration at the Bread and Roses pub in nearby Clapham. Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman was expected to attend.

Angela Eagle, first elected in 1992, is the only openly gay woman MP in the House of Commons, and was part of the ministerial team that steered the civil partnership legislation through Parliament in 2004. She is currently a Treasury Minister.

She is the first woman in Parliament to go through a civil partnership ceremony. Male MPs Ben Bradshaw and Alan Duncan have tied the knot with their respective partners.

Angela’s twin sister Maria Eagle, also an MP, said: “It’s been great, everyone was very pleased and they are very much in love.”