Angela Watkinson

Conservative Party | Upminster

Civil Partnership Bill

Angela Watkinson (Upminster) (Con): The points that the Minister is making are valid, but do they not equally apply to platonic companions who share a home together and suffer equally?

Jacqui Smith: I do not believe that some of the issues that I have identified do apply. There is a particular significance to a partnership between two people who have chosen to share their home and their life, to love each other and to care for each other. I will deal with the issue of other types of carers, which I take seriously, later, but to conflate the two is to do justice neither to the same-sex couples whom the Bill seeks to serve nor to carers in the sort of relationships that the hon. Lady describes.

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