The Nuffield Foundation’s new report called ‘Finding Fault’ claims sixty per cent of divorcing couples are making up stories of adultery and bad behaviour in order for the divorce to go through quickly under “fault-based” laws.

Harry Benson, a Christian and Research Director for the Marriage Foundation told Premier he agrees with the report’s recommendation for reform.

He told Premier’s News Hour: “A little over half of all divorces involve this fault at the moment, but it’s essentially a sham.

“It’s something that you end up having to concoct. If you want your divorce to happen within two years, you have to make up a reason. So it doesn’t necessarily reflect what people’s behaviour is.”

A majority of divorce petitions in England and Wales still rely on allegations of fault.

In 1990 a Law Commission report set out six problems with fault-based divorce, including that the law was confusing and misleading, discriminatory and unjust, distorted bargaining positions, provoked unnecessary hostility, made things worse for children by exacerbating parental conflict whilst at the same time doing nothing to save marriages.

As a result, parliament went on to pass a no-fault divorce regime with the Family Law Act 1996, but logistical challenges meant that this was never implemented.

The report calls for lawmakers to remove fault divorce, so that divorce can solely be based on confirmation by at least one spouse that the…

Northern Ireland’s political parties have until the end of Monday to reach a power sharing agreement; otherwise Westminster will impose a budget.

Jim Shannon told Premier the critical issue is the Irish Language Act proposed by DUP rival party Sinn Fein.
Shannon said it was an “impossible request”.

He told Premier: “If someone wants their child at school wants their child to speak the Irish language, that power within that act means that school, even if it’s only one person, will have to have a classroom, book work and appropriate time. There will be costs of course to the government department.”

He added that the “powerful” act would mean that street signs would have to be written in Irish and 10 per cent of all people that apply for Civil Service jobs must speak the Irish language. Shannon said these are all unfair rules.

He told Premier: “There are many people in my constituency which have an interest in it and don’t see it as a problem, but the Irish language act gives them the authority to do things above and beyond any other language act would have.”

Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy said while he believed a deal could still be done, it “needs to be a deal for all in our society and not just for the political leaderships of unionism”.

Shannon said although it will be unfortunate if an agreement isn’t reached, at least other important issues will be addressed if there’s direct rule from Westminster.

He told…

The Ex-Welsh secretary has apologised for sending explicit texts to a woman he interviewed for a job in 2013 when she was 19-years-old.

The senior MP, who stood for the Conservative leadership last year, admitted to The Mail on Sunday that he had said “some pretty outrageous things” to the woman after meeting her, and that the messages “basically amount to unfaithfulness”.

He said he had been “foolish” but insisted there he had no sexual contact with the teenager.

He went on to say: “We exchanged messages which talked about sex but none of it was meant seriously.”

International trade minister Mark Garnier is accused of harassing a female aide.

The 53-year-old MP for Wyre Forest said he was “not going to be dishonest” and admitted to asking his Commons Secretary Caroline Edmondson to buy sex toys for him.

However, the father of three strongly denies the harassment claim, and described the incidents as “good-humoured high jinks” and “amusing conversation”.

The report comes after Downing Street warned on Friday that Theresa May would take “serious action” against any minister found to have acted inappropriately.

A list of 13 MPs facing harassment allegations has been circulating at Westminster, according to The Daily Telegraph and the Prime Minister ordered a Cabinet Office inquiry into whether Mr Garnier breached the ministerial code.

The Guido Fawkes website has reported 36 serving Conservative MPs have…