Richard Holden MP justified his calls for a ban on first cousin marriages, highlighting the harmful health consequences this practice can have and its potential to create secluded communities.
“Under the Marriage Act 1949, it’s prescribed you can’t marry your brother, sister, mother, father and that sort of thing, but you are allowed to marry your first cousins,” the Conservative minister said on GB News.
While Section 1 of the Act prohibits marriage between siblings, or parents and children, it does not establish first cousins as a prohibited degree of relationship for marriage.
The MP for Basildon and Billericay highlighted the dangerous implications of this, saying: “I don’t want people to be kept essentially in little clans away from the rest of society, and you’re seeing… some communities have first cousin marriage rates in excess of 80 per cent and that is a real problem.
Richard Holden said first cousin marriages could see 'little clans' forming around Britain
GB NEWS
[…] When it’s so entrenched in certain communities, that is a real issue.”
According to the ‘Born in Bradford’ data published two years ago, 46 per cent of mothers from the Pakistani community in three inner-city Bradford wards were married to a first or second cousin.
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Iqbal Mohamed told the Commons that first-cousin marriage is seen as 'very positive' by 'ordinary people'PARLIAMENTLIVE.TVThe politician also said: “The health implications are so severe… many of which you can’t even tell before birth”
The ‘Born in Bradford’ study which has monitored more than 13,000 babies born in Bradford between 2007 and 2010, found that first cousin parenthood may have more harmful consequences than previously acknowledged.
Researchers from the study, who spoke to the BBC, found that children born to blood-related parents have increased risk of recessive disorders such as cystic fibrosis, or sickle cell disease.
Children born to first cousin parents have a six per cent chance of inheriting this type of recessive disorder, compared to only three per cent of the general population.
Richard Holden's Marriage (Prohibited Degrees of Relationship) Bill is set for a second reading todayPAFurther, while children born to non-related parents had a 7.4 per cent probability of having speech and language difficulties, this increased to 11.3 per cent for children born to first cousin parents.
Richard Holden has introduced a private members’ bill to outlaw first cousin marriages, but the Labour government have not given any indication of having plans to impose a ban.
Rather, independent MP Iqbal Mohamed has said such issues would be better addressed through education programmes such as that which is provided under the current policy of ‘genetic counselling’.
Holden also highlighted the social issues surrounding first cousin marriage. Speaking to Martin Daubney, he said: “There’s the issue around women’s rights. If you’re married to your first cousin, you’re sharing the same set of grandparents.
“It’s very difficult to have those rights within a community, particularly if it goes under multiple generations when you can’t leave because you share the same set of grandparents.
“Your financial relationships are all within that one larger extended family, and there are real issues there."
