The Mail on Sunday uncovered a remarkable set of NHS guidance this weekend – from NHS England’s Genomics Education Programme website – that claimed first-cousin marriage is linked to “stronger extended family support systems and economic advantages”. After the story broke, the NHS quickly junked the website and Health Secretary Wes Streeting has now called for an apology from the unit behind it…
But Guido can reveal there is more material written by the NHS that takes a questionable line. A research presentation published by the NHS’s National Institute for Health Research – still online – recommends that healthcare staff should: “Develop cultural competence in service delivery and cultural awareness training that focus on breaking down stereotypes and understanding consanguinity (and termination) from an Islamic perspective.” What?
Dr Patrick Nash, an expert on religious law and director of the Pharos Foundation, told Guido: “The NHS clearly has form in this area. Going back over a decade, official NHS material is prioritising ‘cultural awareness training’ over sound advice to the public. Weak educational programmes such as this have had no clear impact on consanguinity rates or the prevalence of harmful cultural beliefs – only an outright ban will suffice. The government needs to legislate without delay and pay no heed to low-grade sociology.”
Richard Holden MP, spearheading the campaign to ban the practice, told Guido: “Sir Keir Starmer should stop running scared of the misogynistic community controllers and their quislings who appear in the form of cultural relativist obsessed sociology professors, and ban a practice the overwhelming majority, from every community in Britain, want to see ended for good.” The campaign continues…