HC Deb 04 July 1968 vol 767 cc1662-3
2. Sir Knox Cunningham

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will arrange for records to be kept of the wives and children of polygamous marriages who enter the United Kingdom as dependants of immigrants, in order that some estimate may be made of the likely charge to public funds caused by such dependants.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. David Ennals)

No, Sir. The hon. and learned Member will be aware from previous Answers that the number of wives and children of polygamous marriages admitted to this country is small.

Sir Knox Cunningham

Is it not strange that the Government are prepared to spend public money in support of polygamy when our United Kingdom citizens in like circumstances would be sent to jail for bigamy? How can the Minister say—as he said to me—that there are very few of these cases when he has no records and will take no steps to get records?

Mr. Ennals

It would be a very time-consuming operation for the immigration officers and would lead to delay if we kept particulars of everyone who arrived, but I assure the hon. and learned Member that the number is very small, that there is no known incident of a man arriving with two wives and very few cases in which a second wife has joined a husband. As for the benefits of the Welfare State, there are no benefits for second wives—even though there are very few such cases—and there are benefits only in respect of the children.

Mr. Hogg

While I recognise that the problem is numerically probably quite unimportant, may I ask whether the Under-Secretary does not recognise that a serious point of principle is involved— that when immigrants come here they are expected to observe the laws of this country, which involves the proposition that a man has only one wife at a time?

Mr. Ennals

I think that that applies to the vast majority of immigrants, but the legal situation, as the right hon. and learned Gentleman knows, is that a marriage which is legal in the country in which it was undertaken and at the time it was undertaken is also considered legal in this country. It would be very difficult if it were otherwise.