The law should be changed to give daughters and Roman Catholics equal
rights to the throne before Prince William has children, a former
minister has said.
Labour's Lord Dubs raised the issue of the 1701
Act of Settlement in the light of the Prince's forthcoming marriage to
Kate Middleton.
At present a daughter of a monarch would only be next in
line to the throne if she had no brothers, and any potential king or
queen must not be Catholic.
The Bishop of Manchester, the Right
Rev Nigel McCulloch, said unless the Roman Catholic Church softened its
line on allowing its members to take communion in Anglican churches,
changing the Act of Settlement would pave the way for a split between
church and state.
During question time in the Lords, Lord Dubs
said: "As a country we oppose discrimination on the grounds of gender or
religion and it is somewhat curious, to say the least, that we allow
that practice to continue as regards to succession to the throne.
"Given
that there is a bar on Roman Catholics it is odd that there is no bar
on Jews, Muslims, Hindus or even atheists. The matter is actually of
some urgency because if His Royal Highness Prince William and his wife
have children it would be invidious to change the arrangements then. The
time to do it is surely now."
Labour ex-Home Secretary Lord Reid
of Cardowan, baptised a Roman Catholic, said: "It is not only
anachronistic but an offensive symbol of division, discrimination and
inequality in an age when we are trying to inculcate the opposite in
every other aspect of society. If it was sufficient grounds for
retaining a law on the basis that it had been around for 300 years, we
would still be hanging people for stealing sheep and jailing children
for stealing bread."
Justice minister Lord McNally said the
Government did not have "any current plans" to change the position. He
added: "As the previous administration recognised, we are dealing with
Acts of Parliament which govern not only ourselves but a number of
countries where the Queen is head of state and for that reason we have
been proceeding with extreme caution."
He said that discussions set up
by the previous government were "proceeding under the chairmanship of
the New Zealand government".
The Bishop told peers: "The central
provision of the establishment of the Church of England is that the
sovereign as supreme governor should join in communion with that
Church."
He asked Lord McNally: "Will you agree that unless the
Roman Catholic Church is prepared to soften its rules on its members
involvement with the Church of England, whose orders it regards as null
and void, then it is hard to see how the Act of Settlement can be
changed without paving the way for disestablishment which, while it
might be welcomed by some, would be of great concern to many and not
just to Anglicans or indeed other Christians."
Lord McNally replied: "I think that shows the wisdom of proceeding with extreme caution on this."
SIC: PA/UK