EXTRA RIGHTS FOR COUPLES WHO COHABIT

MPs want 3.4 million cohabiting couples to have the same financial rights as those who are married.

- NIGEL NELSON

The plan is to protect one partner from being thrown on the streets with nothing if they break up or one dies and the home is not jointly owned.

And it would mean two people who have chosen to live together rather than marry or enter a civil partnership would have to split property 50-50 just as divorcing couples must do.

MPs on the powerful Commons Women and Equalities Committee are looking into what legal mechanisms are needed to treat cohabiting couples the same as married ones.

Tory chair Caroline Nokes told the Sunday Mirror: “It is surprising they do not share the same legal rights as others given that cohabitation is now the fastest growing family unit.”