WHERE THE MAIN ENGLISH PARTIES STAND ON MARRIAGE

News

The 2024 General Election polling day on 4 July is fast approaching. What are the parties saying about marriage and related issues?

Conservatives

• Move to a household system for child benefit, so single-earner households don’t lose out compared to those where both parents work.
• £300 million additional funding for childcare, to incentivise parents back to work.
• Introduce legislation making clear parents have the legal right to see what their children are being taught in relationships and sex education. Uphold the Government’s recent sex-ed age limits and ban on teaching gender identity.
• Protections for single-sex spaces by clarifying that the Equality Act protects biological sex.
• Legislate to make clear that a person only has one legal sex. (It’s not clear if this will still allow men to legally become women via the Gender Recognition Act.)
• Legislation to ban the private prescription of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria.
• Schools to be required to inform parents if their child wants to be treated as the opposite sex and parents to be involved in the decisions.
• No further commitments on a ‘conversion therapy’ ban.
• The manifesto says it is “proud” of passing 2013’s same-sex marriage act.
• It is also proud of its new non-violent ‘extremism’ definition, which blocks groups which promote ‘hatred or intolerance’ from government funding. Such definitions have been used to target marriage supporters.

Labour

• Commitment to open more nurseries and further expansion of childcare to incentivise parents back to work.
• Strengthening rights of women in cohabiting relationships, which could undermine marriage.
• A “full trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices”. It will do this while “protecting the freedom for people to explore their sexual orientation and gender identity”.
• Simplifying legal gender change, but retaining the need for medical diagnosis.
• Commitment to implementing Cass Review recommendations.
• Support for the Equality Act’s existing single-sex exceptions.

Liberal Democrats

• Require all large employers to monitor and publish data on LGBT employment and pay and publish “five-year aspirational diversity targets”.
• Political parties to be required to “publish candidate diversity data”.
• Organise a Constitutional Convention to create a written UK constitution based on respect for “diverse identities”.
• Accept all asylum seekers who claim to be LGBT.
• Ban all forms of “conversion therapies and practices” and “recognise non-binary identities in law”.
• Introduce gender self-ID with no medical reports required and ending of spousal veto.

Reform

• General scrapping of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) rules.
• Replacement of the Equality Act. The party highlights in particular the Act’s allowance of ‘positive action’, which permits discrimination in favour of those with protected characteristics such as sexual orientation and gender reassignment.
• In the police, scrap all DEI roles and regulations and tighten the definition of hate crime so such crimes can’t be reported by third parties based on perception.
• Ban ‘social transitioning’ in schools. Parents of under-16s to be kept informed about their child.
• Beef up the Free Speech Act with heavy financial penalties for universities in breach.
• The party believes “strong families are the bedrock of a thriving society” and will increase the tax-free marriage allowance from 10% to 25% “[a]s soon as finances allow”. This would mean “no tax on the first £25,000 of income for either spouse”.
• Support stay-at-home mums by front-loading child benefits to early years.

Greens

• Extend childcare provision to 35 hours from nine months of age to incentivise parents back to work.
• Amend the Online Safety Act to ban “falsehoods”. Such censorship is often used ideologically, including against marriage supporters.
• Bring in gender self-ID; allow a non-binary sex option for passports.
• Police to be required to “root out” officers holding “homophobic” views.

Support for real marriage will be more vital than ever after the election. C4M uniquely represents marriage supporters from all faiths and none.