Hoon backs marriages review call

Chief Whip Geoff Hoon said there was a "particular problem" that needed expert analysis after a fellow minister warned the issue was not being addressed.

Phil Woolas said that while health workers were well aware of the heightened risk of genetic problems, cultural sensitivities made the issue difficult to raise.

The environment minister, who represents ethnically-diverse Oldham East and Saddleworth, said: "Part of the risk, I am told by the health service, is first-cousin marriages. If you are supportive of the Asian community then you have a duty to raise this issue.

"Awareness does need to be raised but we are very aware of the sensitivities," he added, pointing out that many of the people involved were the products of such marriages.

The comments come at a sensitive time for community relations following the Archbishop of Canterbury's controversial comments about accommodating aspects of sharia law in Britain.

But Mr Woolas insisted that the marriages - which are legal in the UK - were a cultural, not a religious, issue based in the traditions of rural parts of Pakistan.

Defending his colleague, Mr Hoon told Sky News' Sunday Live: "He was commenting on a particular problem about cousins marrying first cousins.

"It is important that we look at that in terms of scientific expertise and the extent to which it is actually causing problems," he told Sky News' Sunday Live.

"But it obviously is a very sensitive matter and no-one, no-one, would suggest this is a problem for the wider Muslim community. I am confident that what he has said will have been said with sensitivity and with proper regard to his Muslim constituents and Muslims right across the United Kingdom."