Poll: big majority say family life crumbling under Labour

A massive 72 per cent of readers of a national newspaper say there has been a breakdown of family life in recent years.

The survey, for The Sun newspaper, shows 43 per cent blame Labour’s benefits system while over a third say the reason is the lack of stigma now attached to being a single parent.

Just last week a sociologist said that mothers are increasingly making a “lifestyle choice” to rely on state benefits rather than a male partner.

In the poll, reported in today’s paper, 43 per cent of respondents say they believe having married parents is the best and most stable way for a child to be brought up.

Over 40 per cent say marriage tax breaks would help to create a more stable society.

The survey also questioned participants on which political party they “trust most to stand up for the right kind of family values”.

Just over 30 per cent say they trust the Conservatives, while for Labour it is only 17 per cent. A third of respondents signal they do not know which party would be best for the family.

Geoff Dench, the sociologist behind the findings on state benefit reliance, said when he unveiled his findings: “It seems that lone motherhood is less a result of relationship breakdown, more a lifestyle choice.

“And the existence of state benefits as a source of economic security seems to be encouraging young mothers not to bother with male resident partners.”

Family breakdown is estimated to cost UK taxpayers £41 billion a year.

According to a recent report by Christian group the Jubilee Centre, married parents are four and a half times more likely to stay together than cohabitees.

The report showed that three quarters of couples in 2006 who were married when they had their first child were still together when the child turned 16.

This rose from 70 per cent who had stayed together in 1992.

However, only 16.5 per cent of couples in 2006 who were cohabiting at the birth of their first child stayed together until the child reached 16. More than half of those had married.