HC Deb 01 November 1979 vol 972 c585W
Mr. Marlow

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his policy that marriage between parties who do not know each other, or as a means of gaining entry to the United Kingdom, should not necessarily confer right of residence, in order to make clear who may, and who may not, enter the United Kingdom on marriage or as a fiancé.

Mr. Whitelaw

A White Paper containing proposals for a revision of the immigration rules will be published shortly. Under these proposals a husband or fiancé will not be allowed to settle in the United Kingdom if the primary purpose of the marriage is to obtain admission to this country, or if one of the parties does not intend that the couple should live together permanently as man and wife, or if the parties have not met. In other cases the man will have no claim to settle here, but may be allowed to do so if the woman is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth in the United Kingdom.

It is certainly not my intention to keep out of the United Kingdom the husband or fiancé of a woman who was born in this country and who has contracted or is about to contract a genuine marriage. Nor have I overlooked the fact that girls will have been born abroad because their United Kingdom-born parents were temporarily out of the country at the time of their birth. It will be my intention to consider such cases sympathetically for favourable treatment outside the rules.