London, Dec 23 (IANS) Increasing family break-ups could see marriages in Britain becoming an elite middle-class institution, a senior British politician warned Wednesday.
David Willetts, the opposition Conservative party’ shadow cabinet member responsible for the family, said it would be “extremely dangerous if marriage became something only for the affluent elite” and advocated steps to bolster marriage.

“There is quite a lot of evidence coming from America about how we are in danger of heading towards a society where middle-class people get married and people on low and erratic incomes don’t get married, and that in turn leads to a divergence of a whole host of other outcomes,” Willett told The Guardian.

“In my view it would be extremely dangerous if marriage became something only for the affluent elite and that is what will happen, unless we try to get some kind of policy that restores it as a more widespread institution as we had in the past,” he added.

Willett’s remarks came ahead of a Conservative discussion paper that is expected to stress the role of the state and the voluntary sector to help fathers in relationships, especially at the birth of the first child - the point where many couples break up.

Marriage rates in Britain are at a historic low, with only 270,000 people married last year compared with 480,285 at the peak in 1972.

Research shows that less educated British women born after 1960 have a divorce rate 30 percent higher than that of the better educated. They are also more likely to have a child outside a live-in partnership.

One explanation for the middle-class bias towards marriage in the US, Willetts told the newspaper, was the fact that there were fewer eligible working-class males, owing to deskilling of societies.

“I think there are things that have gone deeply wrong with our country. The rate of family break-up is a disaster for children,” said Willets, who also advocated recognition of marriage in the tax system.