Clause 1 - Power to refuse decree absolute if steps not taken to dissolve religious marriage
Divorce (Religious Marriages) Bill
10:45 am
Mr Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield, Conservative)
First, may I say what a pleasure it is to appear under your benign authority today, Mr. Conway? I was about to address you as Sir Derek because, when I was formerly in the House, most people who occupied your position either were knights or became knights. I am sure that the Committee joins me in hoping that it will not be too long before you are addressed as Sir Derek.
Secondly, may I say what a pleasure it is to appear before you rather than the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich, under whose chairmanship I served as a Government Whip and as a Minister? She was an extremely firm and utterly correct Chairman of the Committee, but I always used to approach those occasions with considerable fear and trepidation.
I do not wish to detain the Committee. I agree strongly with the hon. Member for Torridge and West Devon. After reading the brief, which the hon. Member for Hendon kindly and helpfully supplied, I wondered why Parliament was interfering in what appeared to be a religious matter and why I, a not very good member of the Church of England, had been invited to serve on the Committee. The fact is that the Bill would not be before us if the rabbinical authorities had been able to sort out the problem. As the hon. Member for Hendon said, there are several heart-rending cases, which the Bill seeks to put right.
There is a philosophical point—I feel the spirit of the shadow Leader of the House brooding over me—about whether the law should intervene in a matter of faith. However, I am entirely satisfied that, although the Bill will not solve the problem, the judgment of the Jewish community is that it will be help to do so. Therefore, it deserves the full support of the Committee and has the full support of the Conservative party.