A major campaign against proposals to allow same-sex marriage the United Kingdom has been launched. 

The Coalition for Marriage (C4M) is a group of organisations and individuals who support the current definition of marriage and opposes any plans to redefine it.

Among its supporters are the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, and Lord Brennan, the barrister and peer.

A consultation on redefining marriage is set to be launched by the Government next month.

Lord Carey described the proposal as “an act of cultural vandalism”.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Lord Brennan said: “We cannot allow such social engineering to take place with such Orwellian results that we say ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two’ instead of mother and father.”

C4M campaigners believe the Government has seriously underestimated the strength of opposition to its plans.

Drawing on comments made by the Home Secretary that the government’s consultation will be about “how” and not “whether” to redefine marriage, C4M chairman Colin Hart branded the plans “profoundly anti-democratic”.

He said: “The 24 million married people in this country are not even going to be asked whether they mind their marriage being redefined.”

Mr Hart continued: “The Government is running away from this public debate. They are bulldozing ahead without any thought for the consequences.”

He also said that marriage “is woven into the fabric of our national laws. That can’t be just unpicked in a single stroke”.

Half a million C4M petition sheets have been printed for distribution across the nation, which is open to anyone resident in the UK and over the age of 16.

Other notable signatories include former Lord Chancellor Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Professor Brenda Almond, President of the Philosophical Society of England, and Fiona Bruce MP.

C4M has launched a petition on the matter and can be signed online here: www.c4m.org.uk

Leading public figures including politicians from the Conservative and Labour parties, lawyers, academics and religious leaders, have already signed the petition affirming that marriage is between one man and one woman for life.