David Cameron in favour of marriage tax cuts

David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party, will this week welcome proposed changes to the taxation imposed on married couples.

According to the Times, the proposed changes will be announced in a policy report by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, due to be published tomorrow. Entitled Breakthrough Britain: Ending the Costs of Social Breakdown, the reports suggests that married couples should be handed new tax breaks and payment benefits.

It is thought that Mr Cameron will say that the state of family breakdown in Britain is "extreme", and that the country's tax system should do more to "affirm" marriage, as the systems of many other large European countries do.

Speaking to the Independent ahead of the report's publication, he said: "The kids do best if mum and dad are there to look after them and today we have a benefit system that encourages couples to be separate. We have no recognition of marriage in the tax system. These things have to change."

Moreover, he told the BBC that the "big argument of our times" was "mending Britain's broken society", adding: "We need a big cultural change in favour of fatherhood, in favour of parenting, in favour of marriage."