Couple in legal win on civil partnerships

Pair seek government action after Supreme Court rules legislation is incompatible with human rights laws

A heterosexual couple fighting a law which prevents them entering into a civil partnership have called on the government to “act with urgency” after winning a legal battle at the UK’s highest court.

Following a declaration by the Supreme Court that the current legislation is “incompatible” with human rights laws, Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan described being “elated”.

Speaking outside court after yesterday’s ruling, Ms Steinfeld, 37, said: “Today we are a step closer to opening civil partnerships to all, a measure that would be fair, popular and good for families and children across the country.”

Mr Keidan, 41, said there was now only one option – “to extend civil partnerships to all”.

He said it was hoped the government would now “act with urgency” for the sake of thousands of couples across the country.

The couple, who have two young daughters and live in Hammersmith, west London, are currently prevented from having a legal union through the route of civil partnership because the Civil Partnership Act 2004 says only same-sex couples are eligible.

Five Supreme Court justices, including the court’s president Lady Hale, granted a declaration that, in precluding a different sex couple from entering into a civil partnership, the Act was “incompatible” with European human rights laws on discrimination and the right to a private and family life.

While granting the declaration, the court pointed out that the government was not “obliged” to do anything as the result of its decision on incompatibility.

Lord Kerr, explaining the decision, said the government “does not seek to justify the difference in treatment between same-sex and different sex couples”.

He added: “To the contrary, it accepts that the difference cannot be justified.”

What the government sought was “tolerance of the discrimination while it sorts out how to deal with it”.

During a hearing in May, the couple’s barrister, Karon Monaghan QC, told the Supreme Court that they have “deeprooted and genuine ideological objections to marriage” and are “not alone” in their views.

She said matrimony was “historically heteronormative and patriarchal” and the couple’s objections were “not frivolous”.

Mr Keidan, a magazine editor, said: “There are 3.3 million cohabiting couples in this country, the fastest growing family type. Many want legal recognition and financial protection, but cannot have it because they are not married and because the choice of a civil partnership is not open to them.

“The law needs to catch up with the reality of family life in Britain in 2018.”

The law needs to catch up with the reality of family life in Britain in 2018. CHARLES KEIDAN

Picture: Press Association. Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan outside the Supreme Court in London, where they have won their fight for the right to enter into a civil partnership.