We can’t go on ignoring the importance of strong families. They provide the stability, warmth and love we need to flourish as human beings, and the relationships they foster are the bedrock on which society is built. Labour’s complacent attitude to commitment has done untold harm, and their narrow child-centred approach ignores the importance of strengthening the relationships between all family members – children, parents, grandparents and the wider family. As a consequence, Britain is one of the least family-friendly countries in the developed world. This will change with a Conservative government. We will not be neutral on this. Britain’s families will get our full backing.
Good parenting makes a big difference to our future success or failure – the warmth of their parenting is as important to a child’s life chances as the wealth of their upbringing. Of course money matters, which is why a Conservative government will help families with their finances. But we also need to help families with all the other pressures they face: lack of time, the impact of work, worries about schools and crime, poor housing. And if we want to give children the best chance in life – whatever background they are from – the right structures need to be in place: strong and secure families, confident and able parents, an ethic of responsibility instilled from a young age.
Together with our focus on reversing educational failure, worklessness, debt and addiction, our support for families will make it much easier for every family to provide an environment in which children can flourish. Strengthening families will also increase social mobility, and play an important part in helping us work towards our aspiration of ending child poverty by 2020.
You can read our draft manifesto on the family using the document reader below, or alternatively click here to download a copy in PDF format.