Labour stand on marriage comes in for Tory criticism

London: Labour was accused of a "pathological" opposition to supporting marriage by David Cameron Tuesday as he promised a Tory government would reward every wedded couple.

The Conservative leader drew battle lines for the general election with a scathing attack on Children's Secretary Ed Balls, who had said marriage was not the key to a happy family.

Cameron told the Daily Mail that "celebrating" and "encouraging" marriage was the norm in most European countries and a Tory government would follow suit by changing the tax system.

He dismissed speculation that the Conservatives might limit their long-standing commitment to support marriage to couples with children, or those on low incomes. All those who tie the knot or enter a civil partnership would qualify, he insisted.

Signalling that Labour also regards the family as a key election battleground, Balls said on Monday that proposals to be published next year will assert that children's welfare is not necessarily best protected through marriage, but instead through "stable and lasting relationships between parents".

The married father of three added: "I think marriage is really important, but you cannot say ‘We will have a family policy which is only about marriage'. That ignores the well-being of relationships where there is not a marriage, either due to divorce, separation or whatever.

"The Tory policy is that marriage is first-class and any other relationship is second-class. That is fundamentally not in the interests of children. We should be about supporting strong and stable relationships."

The traditional family unit also came under attack from the Family and Parenting Institute, a state-financed organisation set up by Labour to speak for parents and children.

Its head Dr Katherine Rake suggested that the model of the nuclear family is no longer "the norm" and said there would be no such thing as a "typical family" in the next 10 to 20 years.

Dr Rake predicted that mothers would play less of a role in their children's lives due to work pressures, meaning "communal parenting" will become commonplace in many families, with siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles stepping in.

She declared: "What policy-makers must not do is fall into the trap of investing large sums of money trying to reverse the tide of trends by trying to encourage more ‘traditional' families."

Cameron said: "Labour's pathological inability to recognise that marriage is a good thing puts them on completely the wrong side of their own dividing line. Ed Balls seems to see marriage as irrelevant. I don't think it is."