Newly released documents from The National Archives sheds light to an interesting policy. The documents show this policy was seriously considered by then PM Margret Thatcher and her ministers, it involved banning women in polygamous relationships with Asian men from the UK. In 1986, the government wanted to specially ban wives of Pakistani and Bangladeshi men from entering the UK, policy chiefs at Downing Street advised the PM, ‘Though the numbers are small, the problem is vexed and the Home Office are exposed to public pressure.’
In a handwritten note Thatcher wrote ‘The country would be with us on this. We would be crazy to discriminate in favour of the coloured Commonwealth against the UK.’ However the Attorney General, Sir Michael Havers wrote ‘I advise in the strongest terms against taking and action against second wives until there is a change in the law.’