Cameron promises tax help for gay and straight couples

LONDON (Reuters) - David Cameron promised on Monday to offer tax breaks to same-sex couples engaging in civil partnerships, one of a raft of family-friendly measures he hopes will soften his party's image.

Cameron, who will become prime minister if the Conservatives win a general election due by June, was seeking to bounce back after admitting last week he had "messed up" by appearing to go back on a pledge to give married couples tax breaks.

"We will recognise marriage, whether between a man and a woman, a woman and a woman or a man and a man, in the tax system -- and yes, that is a commitment," he said during a speech at think-tank Demos.

Gay couples cannot marry under British law but they can enter into civil partnerships that give them comparable rights to those enjoyed by married couples.

Cameron did not provide any details of how his proposed tax breaks would work, and side-stepped a question on whether they would be available for people re-marrying after leaving a previous spouse and children.

The pro-marriage tax break, a policy that is popular with many grassroots Conservatives, has become a minefield for Cameron since he said in a media interview that he merely "hoped" to implement it. He later re-affirmed that he would.

Cameron's pro-family stance is part of a strategy to present himself as a "compassionate Conservative" and change perceptions of his party, seen by some voters as a "Nasty Party" since the days of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Cameron said he wanted to break with past attitudes within his party, which used to hold individual freedom paramount and say the state should back out of people's affairs and limit its role to strongly enforcing the rule of law.

Cameron, who has two young children, said he believed the state should try and foster values such as good parenting and commitment because it was in the general interest to build a "responsible society".

"It's not just right, it's essential that we form a view on how responsible character is formed and what the government can do to help form it," he said.

Cameron said that a Conservative government would extend the right to apply for flexible working hours to all parents with a child under 18-years-old, and change the rules on parental leave to make it easier for both parents to care for newborn babies.

He said he would maintain the Labour government's "Sure Start" programme, which aims to support parents of infants and toddlers, and would boost its funding to make more health advisers available to visit families at home.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Keith Weir)