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Introducing “no fault” divorce shows Boris Johnson’s government has “lost its moral compass”, Tory MP Christopher Chope has said as he compared new legislation to “how we used to deal with witches”.
A majority of MPs have already backed a bill that would remove the need for one party to allege adultery, unreasonable behaviour or desertion to get a divorce.
Couples will also be allowed to jointly apply for a divorce where the decision to separate is a mutual one.
Justice secretary Robert Buckland said the move will take the pain out of the legal process by removing blame.
But a small number of right-wing MPs still oppose the move, saying the bill “undermines marriage”.
Chope has spoken out in the Commons, comparing the Tory government to “cultural Marxists” because of the move.
He has previously faced calls to be kicked out of the Conservative Party after halting a backbenchers’ bill to make upskirting a criminal offence and blocked a planned law protecting children from female genital mutilation.
The former minister told the Commons: “If any more evidence was needed that our government has lost its moral compass, I think this bill provides that evidence.”
He said the bill enables irretrievable breakdown of a marriage to be proved by “mere assertion” without the need for any evidence, adding: “Reliance on mere assertion was how we used to deal with witches and it’s still a favourite tool of dictators, such as Putin and Erdogan who govern by decree.
“I didn’t think we were going to venture down that route in this parliament under a Conservative government.”
He went on to speculate that many divorcees on their own during the Covid-19 lockdown may “desperately wish” they were still married.
He added: “The government almost seems to be venturing down the same route as those who support cultural Marxism. Is this government inadvertently a collaborator with cultural Marxism in seeking to undermine nuclear families?”
Buckland has said of the bill at a previous session: “No one sets out thinking that their marriage is going to end, no one wants their marriage to break down, none of us are therefore indifferent when a couple’s lifelong commitment has sadly deteriorated.
“It is a very sad circumstance but the law, I believe, should reduce conflict when it arises.
“Where divorce is inevitable, this bill seeks to make the legal process less painful.”