Couples should get married if they want to have children, according to one of the UK’s top family judges.

Sir Paul Coleridge (pictured) has said that couples whose relationship is not stable enough to merit getting married should not have children.

Sir Paul, who set up the Marriage Foundation, a think-tank dedicated to promoting marriage, said those who did not feel ready for children should not have them, the Daily Telegraph reports.

He said couples had no right to have children, “you only have responsibilities if you have them”.

Sir Paul, who is retiring from the bench next year after decades as a family lawyer and judge, criticised warring parents’ obsessions with their own “rights” instead of their responsibilities to do the best for their children.

His comments came after the Marriage Foundation published research suggesting children whose parents were not married were twice as likely to suffer a family break-up as those whose parents were married.

Sir Paul, who sits in the High Court as Mr Justice Coleridge, said there was a “high level of ignorance” in the political establishment about the benefits of marriage.

He praised Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, who has pressed for tax breaks for married couples, as one of the few figures willing to advocate the virtues of marriage.

Sir Paul said recently that his decision to step down next year was at least in part driven by the lack of support within the judiciary for his views.

He said he did not think politicians and other authority figures were “afraid” to speak in favour of marriage but many of them believed marriage and cohabitation were equivalent.

“There is this idea out there that it doesn’t make any difference whether you cohabit or marry [to which I say] no it doesn’t — except that one tends to last and the other tends not to last,” he said. “And when you are considering what is best for children, stability is the name of the game.”

He insisted that he was not intending to “preach morality”.

“But the reality of the family is very simple,” he said. “If your relationship is stable enough to cope with the rigours of child rearing then you should consider seriously adding the protection of marriage to your relationship.

“If your relationship is not stable enough to cope with children you should not have them. You have a responsibility – you have no right to have children, you only have responsibilities if you have them.

“In the courts people talk about their rights – you have no right where children are concerned … what you have are responsibilities and duties to do the best you can for them.”

He made clear he was not saying people should not have children unless they were prepared to marry.

He said: “I don’t think they should have children until they are sure that their relationship is stable enough to cope with the stresses and strains.”