Britain’s left-wing authorities has blocked a legislation searching for to outlaw first-cousin marriages.
As strain grows on Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his authorities’s refusal to fully investigate the grooming gangs scandal through which primarily Pakistani males have been allowed to groom younger white ladies, the Labour Social gathering is searching for to shore up ties with their Islamic voting base.
Conservative MP Richard Holden, who proposed the laws, wrote on the X platform that Labour has blocked any additional development of his 1st Cousin Marriages Invoice, which might outlaw marriages between first cousins which are frequent inside Muslim communities.
Holden defined:
The Authorities at present blocked any additional consideration of the prohibition of 1st Cousin Marriages Invoice.
They may have let it progress to committee stage when all the small print may very well be thrashed out however they blocked it Labour will block it progressing on the twenty fifth too and every time I attempt to carry it again.
It’s unhappy as a result of it was a Labour MP, Ann Cryer, who raised this problem 20 years in the past and was shouted down then.
Folks will get off on calling me names however I grew up within the Pennine mill cities and I don’t wish to see the youngsters of the youngsters I grew up amongst going by this for one more technology.
Thanks to the courageous individuals who’ve reached out to me who’re a part of the communities the place that is prevalent and who hate to see sure parts of the institution proceed to allow horrible practices for – at greatest – concern of inflicting offence or pondering it’s higher to comb points underneath the carpet – or worse, as a result of when the chips are down they merely don’t care, see it as a approach of harvesting votes from gatekeepers, or have some screwed up views relating to cultural relativism.
The Authorities at present blocked any additional consideration of the prohibition of 1st Cousin Marriages Invoice
They may have let it progress to committee stage when all the small print may very well be thrashed out however they blocked it
Labour will block it progressing on the twenty fifth… pic.twitter.com/sex1zZRCJ2
— Richard Holden MP (@RicHolden) January 17, 2025
Whereas marriages between cousins are frequent amongst many non secular and ethnic teams, they’re notably prevalent amongst Britain’s massive Muslim community because of spiritual permissibility, cultural traditions, and a want to protect household unity.
But, in addition to social stigma amongst wider society, breeding between cousins results in a extremely elevated danger of genetic issues and bodily weak point.
Final month, a far-left impartial Muslim MP spoke out in opposition to the proposal, saying that he didn’t wish to “empower the state to ban adults from marrying one another not least as a result of I don’t assume it might be efficient or enforceable”.
“The explanation the follow is so frequent is that odd folks see household inter-marriage general as one thing that may be very constructive, one thing that helps construct household bonds and helps put households on a safer monetary foothold.”
MP Iqbal Hussain Mohamed defending cousin marriage. pic.twitter.com/kOwAP4SNhi
— SL (@Steve_Laws_) December 10, 2024
