Radio Minsk host Alena Radouskaya voiced the claim about the legalization of incest in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2025, during the Evening Political Channel broadcast on YouTube:
"Today Keir Starmer officially legalized in the United Kingdom… Now just stop or make yourself comfortable… He legalized marriages between brothers and sisters. Now fathers can marry their daughters, and sons can offer their hand and heart to their mothers. And he considered this a necessary step. And now, in that country, incest is legally permitted."
On the same day, the authors of the Telegram channel Shkvarka News published a post with similar content. To back up their claim, they attached a video of a government session fragment that allegedly showed a discussion on legalizing marriages between relatives. The post included a translation of the politicians’ dialogue (original spelling and punctuation preserved):
— Mr. Starmer, do you understand what you are doing? You are legalizing marriages between brothers and sisters, between relatives. This entails catastrophic health risks, many of which aren't even knowable until post-birth. When practiced generation after generation the English will die out.
— We've taken our position on that bill. Thank you.
Alena Radouskaya likely borrowed the information from Shkvarka News.
The video shown by the Telegram channel’s authors is real. It was first published in March 2025. It does not discuss the legalization of incest but rather the refusal to support a bill introduced by an MP to ban marriages between first cousins. The original video does not contain the phrase: “Mr. Starmer, do you understand what you are doing? You are legalizing marriages between brothers and sisters, between relatives.” Nor does it include the claim that “the English will die out.”
Marriage between close relatives — parents and children, siblings, uncles, aunts, and nieces or nephews — has always been and remains prohibited in the United Kingdom. First cousins are not included in this list, which means the law allows marriages between them.
In December 2024, Conservative MP Richard Holden introduced a bill to ban marriages between first cousins. This sparked debate. Experts acknowledge that such marriages between relatives increase health risks for children. However, opponents argue that a complete ban would not work because it is difficult to enforce and could cause social tension, as these marriages are fairly common within the Pakistani community in the United Kingdom.
In Belarus, marriages between first cousins are also not explicitly prohibited. Only unions between close relatives are forbidden, such as parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, full siblings or half-siblings, as well as between adoptive parents and adopted children.
