{"id":143690,"date":"2024-12-10T16:25:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T16:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politics.co.uk\/?post_type=parliament&#038;p=143690"},"modified":"2024-12-10T16:26:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T16:26:07","slug":"richard-holdens-bill-to-ban-first-cousin-marriages-met-with-opposition-by-independent-mp","status":"publish","type":"parliament","link":"https:\/\/www.politics.co.uk\/parliament\/richard-holdens-bill-to-ban-first-cousin-marriages-met-with-opposition-by-independent-mp\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Holden&#8217;s bill to ban first-cousin marriages met with opposition by independent MP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/player.target-video.com\/player\/build\/targetvideo.min.js\"><\/script> <div id=\"TargetVideo_33847839\" style=\"width:16;height:9;\" > <\/div> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> $bp(\"TargetVideo_33847839\", {\"video\":\"1908622\",\"width\":\"16\",\"height\":\"9\",\"id\":\"24436\"}); <\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A former Conservative minister has called for first-cousin marriage to be banned in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10 wp-block-paragraph\">Introducing the proposals in the House of Commons, Richard Holden said the children of first cousins were at greater risk of birth defects and that the practice should be prohibited on the grounds of public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10 wp-block-paragraph\">However, independent MP Iqbal Mohamed argued a ban would not be &#8220;enforceable&#8221; and said these issues would be better addressed through education programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mohamed said: &#8220;Forced marriages must be prevented, and the freedom of women must be protected at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;However, the way to redress this is not to empower the state to ban adults from marrying each other. Not least because I don&#8217;t think it would be effective or enforceable. Instead, the matter needs to be approached as a health awareness issue and a cultural issue.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Politics.co.uk is the UK\u2019s leading digital-only political website. <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politics.co.uk\/subscribe\/\"><i>Subscribe to our daily newsletter<\/i><\/a><i> for all the latest news and analysis.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former Conservative minister has called for first-cousin marriage to be banned in the UK. Introducing the proposals in the House of Commons, Richard Holden said the children of first cousins were at greater risk of birth defects and that the practice should be prohibited on the grounds of public health. However, independent MP Iqbal&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politics.co.uk\/parliament\/richard-holdens-bill-to-ban-first-cousin-marriages-met-with-opposition-by-independent-mp\/\" title=\"Read Richard Holden&#8217;s bill to ban first-cousin marriages met with opposition by independent MP\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":183,"featured_media":143691,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[868],"tags":[6290],"parliament-briefing":[6873],"sign-up":[],"mp":[],"event":[],"class_list":["post-143690","parliament","type-parliament","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","tag-richard-holden","parliament-briefing-10-minute-rule-bill"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Richard Holden&#039;s bill to ban first-cousin marriages met with opposition by independent MP - Politics.co.uk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politics.co.uk\/parliament\/richard-holdens-bill-to-ban-first-cousin-marriages-met-with-opposition-by-independent-mp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Richard Holden&#039;s bill to ban first-cousin marriages met with opposition by independent MP - Politics.co.uk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former Conservative minister has called for first-cousin marriage to be banned in the UK. 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