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Scottish Family Party: manifesto promotes marriage – BBC News
The Scottish Family Party has launched its manifesto for the general election, aiming to “promote marriage and protect the value of human life”.
The pro-marriage, anti-abortion party was set up in 2017 and is standing16 candidates in the election on 4 July.
The party said it would incentivise marriage through tax reform and introduce a “wedding box” with vouchers for meals and holidays for newlyweds.
Party leader Richard Lucas said he hopes voters will be prompted to think about the party’s “unique policy areas”.
Speaking on BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: “We’re not promoting marriage because that’s the sort of thing we like, like it’s some sort of arbitrary view that we happen to hold, we support marriage because we care in particular about children.
“And anyone who wants to see the best outcomes for children should want to see more and more children brought up in the ideal context which is with a married mum and dad.”
The party says it would promote marriage in three ways: teaching the “philosophy” of marriage in schools, incentivising marriage in the tax and benefits system and offering cultural leadership.
Instead of treating married couples as two individuals for tax purposes, the party would move to a system that assesses them as a family.
A wedding box, similar to the SNP’s baby box, filled with vouchers for meals out and holidays for newly married couples is also mentioned in the manifesto.
Mr Lucas said this policy would “communicate to society” that marriage is an important issue.
Mr Lucas said the party is also focussing on “the value of human life”.
The Scottish Family Party backs an ban on abortion except in situations where the woman’s life is in danger.
Figures released by Public Health Scotland showed there were 16,584 terminations in 2022, which Mr Lucas described as a “grave issue” which is being entirely neglected by the main parties.
“A substantial majority approve of abortion but that’s what happens in social change, it starts off with a majority with a view that on reflection they come to realise is wrong,” he said.
He continued: “If you look at, for example the abolition of slavery etc, people say ‘oh well the majority think it is fine so we should just shut up and forget about it’ which obviously is not a helpful way to go.”
Mr Lucas said an overnight ban on abortion would change attitudes.
Key policies
The party has highlighted eight key policy areas including demanding high standards in schools, protecting free speech, opposing both abortion on demand and assisted suicide and opposing transgender ideology.
Within these areas the party has outlined specific policies:
- Repealing the smacking ban legislation.
- Increasing child benefit payments and making them available regardless of family size.
- Giving accompanied children free entry to government agency and council-run attractions such as historic sites, museums and swimming pools.
- Encouraging public transport providers to reduce children’s fares.
- NHS fertility-related treatment should only be granted to couples made up of a man and woman in a long-term stable relationship.
- A council tax reduction and/or tax allowance would be offered to those with an elderly relative living in their home.
The Scottish Family Party contested their first seats in the 2019 UK general election, and also fielded candidates at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election and the 2022 Scottish local elections but has never won any seats.
This time they are will have candidates standing 16 constituencies across Scotland.
Mr Lucas said he is hoping this election will raise the profile of his party.
“It would be good to see substantial numbers of people voting for us but another aspect of the election for us is some people haven’t even heard of the Scottish family party,” he said.
“People will hear about us, people will be prompted to think about our unique policy areas and that’s part of the long process of climbing the mountain towards elected representation.”
The SNP launched their general election manifesto on Wednesday, where they announced plans for “major investment” in the NHS. The party wants to deliver a £1.6bn annual funding boost for the health service in Scotland.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar launched his party’s manifesto on Tuesday, where he set out plans to fund 160,000 additional medical appointments every year and a pay rise for more than 200,000 people in Scotland through a real-living wage.
On Monday, it was the turn of Alex Cole-Hamilton to launch the Scottish Liberal Democrat manifesto in which he pledged a £500m “rescue package” for the care sector and £170m investment in Scottish agriculture.
The Scottish Greens will use their manifesto launch on Thursday to call for an independent Scottish republic, and the Scottish Conservatives will launch their manifesto next week.
The Alba party will use their manifesto to call for a national rent freeze for social housing tenants and a £500 cost-of-living payment a £500 payment for those in receipt of a council tax reduction.
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