A number of senior Conservative MPs, including some former Ministers, have said that Chancellor George Osborne must 
honour the party’s promise to give a tax break to married couples.
The calls were led by Tim Loughton, the former families minister, who warned that next week’s Autumn Statement represented the Chancellor’s last chance to deliver on a key manifesto pledge, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured) made giving married couples a tax break a key part of his General Election campaign. However the Tories’ coalition partners the Liberal Democrats are bitterly opposed to the plan.
David Gauke, a Treasury minister, insisted the government was “committed” to recognising marriage in the tax system and disclosed that “considerable” work had already been completed to prepare for the reform.
Several Tory MPs have called for a transferable tax allowance – worth about £150 a year – for married couples to be introduced before the next general election.
During a debate in Westminster Hall, Mr Loughton demanded a full commitment to the policy in the Chancellor’s 5 December statement to MPs, rather than just “tinkering”.
He said marriage was the “most stable form of bringing up children”.
“Next week’s Autumn Statement by the Chancellor is absolutely the last opportunity for this Government to make absolutely clear the importance it places on marriage, the commitment made in the coalition agreement,” he said.
“We need a full-blooded commitment, not any tinkering around the edges of a half-hearted endorsement of what we all believe in.”
The Conservatives promised a transferable allowance worth up to £150 a year to married couples in their election manifesto.
However, Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said he opposes tax breaks for married couples.
Under the terms of the Coalition agreement, Liberal Democrats would be allowed to abstain on any measures to introduce transferable tax allowances.
The cost of allowing the transfer of one spouse’s full tax allowance to their partner would be up to £2.4 billion if applied to all couples with a dependent child or caring responsibilities, he said.
But £13 billion was being spent on implementing the Lib Dems’ flagship fiscal policy of raising the income tax threshold to £10,000.