Later today (January 22nd) MPs will debate proposed changes to royal succession that would end centuries-old discrimination against women born into the royal family, as well as ending rules barring the sovereign and prospective heirs from marrying a Catholic, although the current prohibition on the monarch being a Catholic will remain in force.
The Succession to the Crown Bill has come about through pressure from equality campaigners and constitutional experts and the proposed changes have already been given approval in principle by the 15 other Commonwealth countries that had to be consulted.
The Government has called the current laws “old fashioned” and with the support of the Opposition hopes to speed the changes through Parliament after the debate, although the Lords Constitution Committee has warned against any move to fast-track legislation of “such first-class constitutional importance”.
The influential Committee has also warned that adequate scrutiny must be given to potential “unintentional consequences” arising from the proposed changes, which are shared by Prince Charles. These could include a situation where a prospective heir could be raised as a Catholic and therefore disqualified from acceding to the throne.
The current heir to the throne has expressed concerns about any consequences that could affect the monarch’s role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, although he is fully behind the ending of primogeniture.
The current laws date back to the 1701 Act of Settlement and the proposed changes will also remove the requirement for descendants of George II to seek permission to marry from the monarch, replacing this with a requirement for the first six people in the succession to seek the consent of the sovereign.
Meanwhile, pressure group Republic, which campaigns for an elected head of state, has called for “real democratic reform” in the shape of a referendum on the UK’s future constitutional arrangements and an end to the hereditary succession altogether.