Ban under-18 marriage

At the AGM in Brighton on 13th June 2018, TG members voted by majority to pass the motion that:

"TG believes that marriage before the age of 18 should be made illegal in the UK"

The topic was raised as it was felt that, even with the provision that parental permission is required before 16 or 17 year olds can marry, this did not do enough to protect vulnerable young people who may be forced into marriage and that in raising the legal age of marriage to 18, the UK would be able to present a stronger argument when speaking out against child marriage in other parts of the world.

With the mandate passed, TG will seek to campaign in order to raise awareness of this issue. Letters have already been sent to the political party leaders and other key members of the House of Commons and House of Lords, and we will update you as and when we received responses beyond standard acknowledgements. 

Taking Action

Following the recent news reports surrounding calls for the legal age of marriage to be raised to 18, and the introduction by Pauline Latham MP of a Private Members' Bill which is now awaiting its second reading, we are asking members to write to their MPs urging them to support the Bill so that it might progress further.

Information on the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill 2017-19 can be found here - as you will see, there is a long way for it to go before it can become law but it is important that we do what we can to help see that it does not fail at such an early stage.

The second reading is on October 26th, so you have just over a month to write to your MP. If you are not sure who your local MP is, you can find out here .

Please do show your support for this campaign by getting involved, and please keep HQ informed of any responses you receive so we can get more of an idea of which MPs will support the Bill and which will not.