Early evening summary
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has said she has “no doubt” government deparments can find efficiency savings worth 5%. (See 10.38am.) The Conservatives have said the government cannot be trusted to cut spending, the Liberal Democrats are saying Reeves should be investing in social care (see 10.33am) and the Green party has said Reeves’s announcements means services face cuts (see 12.22pm).
Kashim Shettima, the Nigerian vice-president, has criticised Kemi Badenoch for “denigrating” his country. (See 4.43pm.)
Nick Candy, a billionaire former Tory donor, has announced that he is joining Reform UK as its treasurer. He claims he can raise more than £40m for the party, and has said he will donate more than £1m himself. (See 10.16am, 12.15pm and 2.28pm.)
The Northern Ireland protocol and Windsor Framework mitigate against the worst excesses of Brexit, MLAs have been told. As PA Media reports, Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan made the claim as the Stormont assembly began a debate on whether to continue with the region’s post-Brexit trading arrangements. However, a DUP MLA stated that the debate and vote is an “illusion of democracy”. The debate is still going on. As the BBC reports, “the motion [to keep the Windsor Framework in place] was tabled jointly by Sinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP. But controversially, unlike other votes at Stormont, there is no requirement for cross-community support for the motion. A simple majority will suffice.”
No 10 declines to back bill from Tory MP to make first-cousin marriage illegal
Downing Street has declined to back a bill from Conservative MP that would make first-cousin marriage illegal.
Asked about the government’s stance, a No 10 spokesperson said the expert advice, which is against first-cousin marriages on the grounds of the health risk to any children conceived, was clear. But, asked if the government would support the bill, the spokesperson said “the priorities for the government are very clear”.
The spokesperson was responding to a question about a bill introduced today under the 10-minute rule procedure by Richard Holden, the former Conservative party chair. MPs did not vote against the bill today, but it has no chance of becoming law because no further time is set aside for it.
Holden said he was proposing the bill for reasons of “health, freedom and national values”. He said some people probably assumed first-cousin marriage was already illegal. But, he told MPs, some communities had “extremely high rates of first-cousin marriage, with Irish Travellers being 20% to 40% and higher rates still among the British Pakistani community”.
The independent Iqbal Mohamed spoke against Holden’s plan. He said rather than “stigmatising” cousin marriages, a “much more positive approach” should be adopted to respond to health concerns linked to the children of those relationships.
He said:
The matter needs to be approached as a health awareness issue, a cultural issue where women are being forced against their will to undergo marriage. In doing so it is important to recognise for many people that this is a highly sensitive issue and in discussing it we should try to step into the shoes of those who perhaps are not from the same culture as ours, to better understand why the practice continues to be so widespread.
Mohamed said cousin marriages were “extremely common” in the Middle East and south Asia and he said that, rather than a ban, “a much more positive approach would be to facilitate advanced genetic test screening for prospective married couples, as is the case in all Arab countries in the Persian Gulf”.
