Young couples have unrealistic ideas about marriage because Britain’s "Hello Culture" makes them think it will be a “fairytale".

Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservative Party, hit out at Britain’s modern culture of making “a big fuss” out of wedding ceremonies, saying: “There is this idea that you can’t get married unless you have some fantastic celebrity wedding.”

He said: “The average cost for a wedding now is over £20,000, when in actual fact what you need is a marriage licence.

“We should be getting pre-wedding education to look at people and say ‘you don’t need to make such a big fuss out of it. What you want to do is get married’.”