Gay marriage campaigners celebrate the decision (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Same-sex marriage has been legalised in England and Wales after receiving the Queen’s royal stamp of approval.

The decision was greeted with cheers from MPs in the Commons as speaker John Bercow announced the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill had been granted Royal Assent.

It clears the way for same-sex weddings by next summer after the bill completed its passage through parliament last night.

The queen’s approval was a formality and was the last step necessary for the bill to become law.


It will allow gay couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies and those who had previously entered into civil partnerships to convert their relationships to marriage.



Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg told campaigners that the new law would ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people felt ‘recognised and valued, not excluded’.

David Cameron had backed the gay marriage bill (Picture: AP)

Equalities minister Maria Miller said she was looking forward to the first same-sex marriage by next summer.

‘Making marriage available to all couples demonstrates our society’s respect for all individuals regardless of their sexuality,’ she said.

‘It demonstrates the importance we attach to being able to live freely. It says so much about the society that we are and the society that we want to live in.’

Lesbian, gay and bisexual charity Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill added: ‘Royal Assent sets the final seal on this modest and decent law which will bring joy to tens of thousands of gay couples and their friends and families.

‘We’ll be working closely with officials over the coming months to make sure that the law is implemented without delay and that the first weddings can take place next January.’

Prime minister David Cameron had also backed the bill, which was introduced by the government in January, despite opposition from his party.

The Coalition for Marriage campaign group warned that the reform could ‘come back to bite’ the prime minister.

Chairman Colin Hart said: ‘Mr Cameron needs to remember that the Coalition for Marriage has nearly 700,000 supporters, nearly six times the number of members of the Conservative party.

‘They are just ordinary men and women, not part of the ruling elite.

‘They are passionate, motivated and determined to fight on against a law that renders terms like husband and wife meaningless and threatens one of the foundations of the institution of marriage.’

Supporters lobby outside the Houses of Parliament in central London (Picture: PA)

Conservative MP Sir Gerald Howarth, one of the bill’s opponents said he was ‘astonished’ the bill had got through.

He said it was a bill for which there is ‘absolutely no mandate, against which a majority of Conservatives voted, has been bulldozed through both Houses’.

He added: ‘I think the government should think very carefully in future if they want the support of these benches.

‘Offending large swathes of the Conservative party is not a good way of going about it.’