UK MP 'Reminiscent' Of Putin For Saying Traditional Marriage Is 'Only Possible Basis' For Successful Society

A Conservative lawmaker in the U.K. drew flak and was likened to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his views on marriage.

During the National Conservatism Conference in London Monday, Danny Kruger, a Tory member of the U.K. parliament, asserted that traditional marriage forms the basis of a healthy society.

"[T]he normative family — held together by marriage, by mother and father sticking together for the sake of the children and the sake of their own parents and for the sake of themselves — this is the only possible basis for a safe and successful society," Kruger said, BBC News reported.

"Marriage is not all about you. It's not just a private arrangement. It's a public act, by which you undertake to live for someone else, and for wider society; and wider society should recognize and reward this undertaking," the British lawmaker added.

Kruger's remarks enraged Andrew Boff, the Conservative chair of the London Assembly and a leading LGBT+ figure in the U.K.

Boff told BBC News that his fellow Conservative lawmaker's language was "reminiscent of some of the diatribes that Putin comes out with."

Boff added that Kruger does not represent the "average Conservative" thinking and that the definition of a family "should not be down to any one religion, state or political splinter group."

As the controversial comments reached Downing Street, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Conservative leader disagreed with Kruger's claims.

Sunak's spokesperson also insisted that the government does not endorse all the views expressed at the National Conservatism Conference despite the fact that some of the cabinet ministers were present at the event.

The Labour Party, the U.K.'s main opposition party, also blasted the Conservatives' participation at the event.

Labour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said the "Tories have nothing to offer the country beyond more failure, more excuses and more divisive politics."

On its website, the National Conservatism listed traditional family values as one of the 10 core values in its statement of principles.

The conservative group defined the traditional family as "built around a lifelong bond between a man and a woman, and on a lifelong bond between parents and children."

The group also blamed the "disintegration of the family" and "decline in marriage and childbirth" on "radical forms of sexual license and experimentation."

The U.K. began recognizing same-sex relationships in 2005, following the legalization of civil partnerships under the Civil Partnership Act of 2004. The law provides most of the rights and responsibilities of civil marriage to same-sex couples.

In January 2013, the Conservative coalition government led by then-Prime Minister David Cameron put forward legislation legalizing same-sex marriages. Despite half of the Tory party voting against it, the bill was passed in the House of Commons in July of that year.

The first same-sex marriage in the U.K. took place on March 29, 2014.