Conservative MP slammed for ‘dangerous’ comments comparing marriage to ‘the regulation of baby-making’
A Conservative MP has been criticised for “dangerous” comments comparing marriage to the “regulation of baby-making” and claiming that discussions around marriage are “infected with or scared of” second-wave feminism.
Danny Kruger, MP for Devizes in Wiltshire, made the comments in a blog post on the website of The New Social Covenant Unit (NSCU), a new campaigning organisation he co-founded with fellow Tory MP Miriam Cates earlier this year.
The NSCU “exists to share an old-new set of ideas in British politics”, according to the company’s website, and claims that “the primary purpose of public policy should be to strengthen families, communities, and the nation”.
In his proposals for marriage reforms, Kruger claimed that “marriage represents the regulation of baby-making” and serves as “a means of tying men into family life, for their own good and that of women and children”.
“It is not, or was not, a mere confirmation of romantic attachment,” he added. “No successful society in history has practised an unregulated sexual free-for-all.”
“This very obviously degenerates into a bonanza for selfish, laddish men, who exploit the license to take the pleasures of sex without the responsibilities. In every successful society, the explicit deal is that sex comes with commitment,” he continued in the post.
Kruger added that one of the reasons “for our cultural silence” around marriage “is that the public discourse is infected with, or scared of, the second-wave feminist belief that traditional family forms are oppressive towards women.”
Jess Phillips, shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, slammed the comments as “dangerous” and “a tour de force of offensive nonsense”.
“It is offensive to men treating them as if they are base creatures who must be controlled — they are not,” she told City A.M. “It is offensive to women and suggests that sex is something a woman gives in exchange for responsibilities and reward… as if women have no agency over their own sexuality.”
“That is not just offensive, it is dangerous to suggest as much,” Phillips added. “He might have noticed that a marriage certificate is alas not a cast iron guarantee of happy families.”
Kruger, who was elected as a Conservative MP in 2019, is a former government adviser on civil society policy as well as the son of TV star Prue Leith. He was commissioned by the Prime Minister to produce a report into levelling up British communities last September, in which he first outlined his proposals for “a new social covenant”.
The MP for Devizes is a staunch opponent of the “no-fault” divorce bill due to come into force later this year.
The bill, hailed as the biggest shake-up of divorce laws for more than 50 years, will abolish rules requiring one spouse to make accusations about the other’s conduct in order to be granted a divorce.
Couples will instead be allowed to apply for a divorce by making a statement of irretrievable breakdown, ending the so-called “blame game” between married partners.
Kruger was one of 12 rebel MPs who voted against the bill in the Commons last year, claiming the new law amounted to “effective abolition of the marriage vow”.
Juliet Harvey, National chair of Resolution — the legal organisation that campaigned for the divorce bill — said the group took issue with Kruger’s suggestion that divorce law reforms undermined marriage.
“Indeed, for many separating couples, these reforms will remove the need for apportioning blame, thus minimising conflict and, crucially, reducing any negative impact of separation on any children,” she said.
“It is also important to recognise that there are many different types of families in the UK, with cohabiting couples continuing to be the fastest growing group. More people are living together before — or instead of — getting married.”