Civil partnerships for straight couples

MEN and women will be allowed to enter civil partnerships rather than marry, Theresa May said yesterday.

The move comes 14 years after MPs approved the system to give legal recognition to samesex relationships.

In June the Supreme Court ruled the current law, which allows civil partnerships for gay but not straight couples, breaks European human rights rules.

Judges backed Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, who said they wanted to be civil partners because they had objections to marriage.

Civil partnerships, first offered to same- sex couples in 2005, provide exactly the same legal rights and duties as marriage, including the need to support a partner after a break-up, and the right to take over a partner’s assets without paying inheritance tax if they die.

But the unions have been declining in popularity among gay and lesbian couples since they won the right to marry in 2014, and the number of new partnerships has fallen by 85 per cent since 2012.

Mrs May said: ‘We are making sure that all couples, be they same- sex or opposite- sex, are given the same choices in life.’

Equalities minister Penny Mordaunt vowed to change the law ‘swiftly’ but officials say there are issues to address across pension and family law.

James Mildred ,of Christian charity CARE, said: ‘This is a Government unwilling to back marriage.’