The Tories’ costly proposal to offer a tax allowance for married couples has so much about it that’s just plain daft. There’s no evidence that tax breaks encourage the reluctant to the altar – yet the party that takes macho pride in how hard and fast it will cut the deficit is ready to waste money on a policy that doesn’t work. They say their proposals will help achieve their ‘aspiration’ to end child poverty, yet when the public finances have never been tighter, they’re happy to blow a fortune on financial support for those who’d marry anyway – usually the better off. And if inculcating responsible behaviour and family stability is the objective, why reward the deserter who remarries, but penalise the parent who singlehandedly continues caring for the kids?

Children who face the greatest risk of poverty, those in lone parent families, or in families with incomes so low they already fall below the tax threshold, won’t benefit from these plans. With an estimated price tag of upwards of £4billion, this proposal squanders cash that could provide support for hundreds of thousands of poor families on those who need it least.