Last Thursday on the close down of Parliament there was a session called Ordination of Clergy which involved two MPs and Andrew Selous who is the Church Estates Commissioner. The two MPs were Diana Johnson who is the Labour MP for Kingston Upon Hill North and Peter Bottomley who is the MP for Worthing West. The comment from Peter and the response from Andrew is below but all of the discussions can be obtained from here.

Peter Bottomley: I speak as a supporter of WATCH, the Women and the Church group. The Church Commissioners should understand that either the Church of England gets rid of what ought to have been temporary exemptions from the Equality Act 2010 or Parliament will do that for it. Does my hon. Friend understand that other MPs who are interested in full equality for women would like to meet the Church Commissioners before we consider what other action we might take?

Andrew Selous: I have very clearly heard what my hon. Friend the Father of the House and indeed the very respected Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Dame Diana Johnson have just said. The Church will have heard that as well and we are of course available for meetings at any time.