Forced marriage could soon become a criminal offence.

Keighley MP Ann Cryer this week sought Government backing for the move.

She was speaking in the House of Commons during the second reading of the Domestic Violence Bill.

Home Office Minister Paul Goggins said the Government was sympathetic to the idea and an amendment to the bill would be discussed at the committee stage.

Mrs Cryer told the Keighley News: "I am pressing the Government to introduce a new and specific criminal offence of forcing to marry, which would provide a shot across the bows of the minority of parents who still pursue this appalling practice and could act as a deterrent.

"Forced marriage is a growing problem -- we are getting a new case every week -- and it is awful for the girls concerned. The perpetrators are actually breaking the law already, with offences including false imprisonment and child abduction, but by introducing a specific offence it would encapsulate all these."

Mrs Cryer told the Commons that much good work had been done since she first raised the issue in Parliament five years ago and a previously taboo subject was now being openly discussed. But she said the reality was that young girls were still being forced into marriage every day and she had lost count of the number of desperate stories she had heard of youngsters being forced to marry someone -- often thousands of miles from home -- who was completely incompatible.

Mrs Cryer, pictured, told MPs: "Education has a crucial role to play in our attempts to eradicate this abuse of human rights and breaches of child protection issues but, given the fact that the number of forced marriages continues unabated, legislation is urgently required.

"The Domestic Violence Bill gives us that chance to do something now.

"An amendment to the bill to make the coercion, aiding and abetting of someone into a forced marriage a specific criminal offence in its own right is long overdue."

She added: "A clear definition of forced marriage, incorporating not only the physical threat to the victim but also taking account of the psychological and emotional intimidation that can be suffered, is vital.

"A new law would give the victim of forced marriage -- at a time of considerable pressure -- the comfort of knowing unequivocally that she is in the right and those applying the pressure are categorically in the wrong, and that the weight of English law is clearly on the side of the victim."