Step 1: Find your MP’s contact details here.
Step 2: Write to your MP letting them know why this Bill is so important to you and asking them to support the Bill.
Template letter to MPs
Dear [insert name of MP]
Child Marriage
I am writing to you in support of the Private Members Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill to change the law in England & Wales to protect children from child marriage introduced on 16 June 2021 by Sajid Javid MP and supported by 11 signatories, including Pauline Latham MP and the numerous national children’s and women’s charities including Barnardo’s, Karma Nirvana and Safelives.
Current law
England and Wales allows 16 and 17 year olds to marry with parental consent, an exception that leaves children vulnerable to parental and familial coercion into child marriage.
What I am asking for
Bypassing the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill, this loophole will be closed and child marriage under the age of 18 will no longer be legally recognised. The Bill must also go one step further and criminalise the aiding, abetting or procurement of child marriage in any, and all, of its forms. This will ensure our laws on child marriage are clear, robust and not susceptible to circumvention, for example with child marriages instead being executed under religious or cultural customs (with impunity).
The UK in its capacity as a signatory to the UN Sustainable Development Goals on gender equality and empowerment of women and further as a key sponsor to Target 5.3 eliminating all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation has a responsibility to lead by example. Child marriage remains a disturbing reality for children in the UK today and has a significant and longstanding impact on the life outcomes of the victim and our wider society. Outlawing child marriage is a clear deterrent and the best way to stop child marriage from happening both here in the UK or to UK citizens abroad. As a constituent, I feel strongly about this very important issue and urge you as representative of [insert name of constituency] to give the Bill your full backing over the course of the coming legislative process.
Yours sincerely,
INSERT YOUR NAME