Cameron's tax breaks for gay partners

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The Tory leader said homosexuals in civil partnerships should be able to claim annual marriage allowances of £3,000.

But he risked angering traditionalists just two days after putting families at the centre of the electoral battleground.

On Tuesday, he supported a report by a Tory policy group that said an 'anti-marriage' bias had to be eliminated from the tax and benefits system.

He told Channel 4 News that married and gay couples should be treated the same way over tax breaks.

He said: "Whatever tax relief we make available to married couples will also be available to civil partnerships too.

"We've always made it clear the two will be treated equally."

As well as alienating traditionalists, he also faces a backlash from Left-wing Tories uneasy with the party's new commitment to marriage.

MP John Bercow, who has denied rumours that he is considering defecting to Labour, condemned tax breaks for married couples as a "thoroughly bad idea".

He said: "There can be a very compelling case for giving targeted assistance to households where there are children...but I cannot see why one should give a prize to people with no children, simply because they happen to be married. It is bizarre."

This week's report by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith suggested spouses who do not work should be able to give their personal allowance of £5,025 - the sum they would not pay tax on if they earned a salary - to their working partner, a move worth £1,000 a year.