April 20, 2017

Three in five people now think civil partnerships should be open to all

Three in five people in Britain believe that civil partnerships should be open to all couples, new polling has found.

A survey of 2000 people by Populus found that 57% think civil partnerships should be made available to both mixed-sex and same-sex couples while only 20% think they should be scrapped altogether.

The survey comes after the Court of Appeal ruled in February that the current legal situation which allows same-sex couples the right to a civil partnership or marriage while mixed-sex couples can only marry cannot continue indefinitely.

The campaign for Equal Civil Partnerships argue that the poll results show that pledging to extend civil partnerships would be a popular choice for parties contesting the June 8th general election.

Matt Hawkins, Campaign Manager for the Equal Civil Partnerships Campaign, said:

“This survey adds to the mound of evidence demonstrating that giving every couple the option of getting a civil partnership would be the popular and fair thing to do. Over 76,000 people have already signed a petition calling on the government to extend civil partnerships, MPs from all parties support our cause, and countries such as France, Sweden, and New Zealand and regions of the British Isles like the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, and Isle of Man have already shown that mixed-sex civil partnerships are easy to introduce and warmly welcomed.

“The spread of mixed-sex civil partnerships across the world has happened in recognition of the fact that nearly all couples want some kind of financial and legal security and that marriage is just not for everyone. It’s an acknowledgment of choice and diversity. Our message to political parties about to fight it out in this June’s general election is that they have everything to win and nothing to lose by pledging to make civil partnerships are real option for mixed-sex couples in Britain.”

The Equal Civil Partnerships Campaign is supported by MPs, MEPs, and Assembly Members from the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour, Green, and Scottish Nationalist Parties and also by individuals such as Owen Jones, Peter Tatchell, and Caroline Criado-Perez and organisations including Liberty, the Women’s Budget Group, and TUC Women.