The Church does not “own” marriage nor have the exclusive right to say who can marry, a government minister has said.

Equalities minister Lynne Featherstone said the government was entitled to introduce same-sex marriages as a “change for the better”.

The Liberal Democrat was responding to comments by Lord Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, who said that “not even the Church” owns marriage.

But Lord Carey accused her of putting an “unwarranted slant” on his words.

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