The Conservatives in the UK have passed another stage of a radical no-fault divorce Bill despite extensive opposition from within the party.

The bill removes the need to prove ‘irretrievable breakdown’, and ends fault-based grounds for dissolving a marriage.

Instead, it allows a person to divorce their spouse in six months against their will without giving a reason.

A debate on numerous moderating amendments was held Wednesday evening, but none were passed.

Conservative MP, Sir Edward Leigh, said the changes amount to ‘quickie divorce’, will lead to more marriage breakdown and will hurt the poor the most.

He also said the new regime is unjust to a spouse who is being wronged:

“We should think of the wife who is faithful to her husband for 30 years only for him to run off. She will have no way of getting a divorce that recognises who was in the right and who was in the wrong—that is taken away. . . . We should think of the man or woman who is mentally or physically abused by his or her spouse. He or she will be unable to get any recognition of that through the divorce process. This new system will be blind to all suffering and to all injustice. The spouse being divorced against his or her wishes will have zero opportunity of contesting the divorce to try to save the marriage or to slow things down and plan for the future”.