LONDON – Marriage in the UK is in danger of becoming the exclusive preserve of the middle classes, a leading Conservative politician warned yesterday.
Shadow cabinet member David Willetts said government policy should aim to tackle social breakdown by restoring marriage as a “more widespread institution”.
The Conservatives are due to publish their ideas on the family in a Green Paper, arguing that the state and voluntary sector can do more to help fathers – especially at the crucial point where the first child is born.
The party will back recognition of marriage in the tax system, as well as providing relationship advice at civil ceremonies.
It is also expected to propose legal changes making it easier for fathers and grandparents to stay in touch when marriages break up.
In an interview with the Guardiannewspaper, Mr Willetts said changes in attitudes to marriage were "extremely dangerous". "The aspiration of marriage is becoming harder to achieve," he said.
“Instead of it becoming just what you do in your 20s, it has become like scaling Mount Everest, a sort of great moral endeavour – and something that requires a lot of time and money. We think we need to ease some of the pressures.
“There is quite a lot of evidence coming from America about how we are in danger of heading towards a society where middle-class people get married and people on low and erratic incomes don’t get married, and that in turn leads to a divergence of a whole host of other outcomes.
“In my view it would be extremely dangerous if marriage became something only for the affluent elite, and that is what will happen, unless we try to get some kind of policy that restores it as a more widespread institution, as we had in the past.”
Mr Willetts, whose responsibilities include family issues, admitted that financial constraints meant the recognition of marriage in the tax system would not appear in the Tories’ first budget. But he insisted such changes were needed to bring Britain back into the mainstream of European society.
Official figures show marriage rates are at a historic low in the UK, with only 270,000 people marrying last year compared to some 480,000 at the peak in 1972.
“Any society in which something as massive as this institution of marriage with a deep history, with roots in its culture, with public recognition, where it didn’t affect behaviour, would be very odd indeed,” Mr Willetts said.
“I think there are things that have gone deeply wrong with our country. The rate of family break-up is a disaster for children.” – (PA)