There has been a flurry of infighting in the government over the last week over social policy as Tory MPs piled the pressure on the PM to introduce marriage tax breaks, in part, to “buy off” the Tory right who are squeamish about gay marriage.
The tax has since been ruled out for the 2013 budget but Tory leadership still promise to bring it in before the end of this parliament. The marriage tax break would be worth about £150 a year. It would go to around a third of married couples: only those where one person (whisper it – the man) is the breadwinner and the other (whisper it – the woman) is the homemaker. A tax break to incentivise this 1950s family model never fails to cause outrage amongst those of us who believe the government has absolutely no right to judge our families.
The Don’t Judge My Family campaign was flooded with emails from those who would lose out: the one in four children who grow up in a single parent family, widows and widowers, victims of domestic violence who leave violent marriages, those couples where both have to work simply to make ends meet, and those who simply choose not to be married. After all, it’s 2013! All of them share real anger that the marriage tax break is telling them their family is not the right kind of family. How dare David Cameron tell them that?
Last, the marriage tax break would cost over half a billion pounds a year. The Tories themselves admit it is to “send a signal” about marriage. That’s a very expensive signal to send. If they were really serious about supporting families rather than pandering to the right, they’d use that money to save SureStart centres and other essential services which are being slashed up and down the country.
David Cameron wants to “send a signal” that marriage is better than any other type of relationship. Sign up to send a signal back: don’t judge my family.
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