MP Jacob Rees-Mogg fails in separate bid to modernise the monarchy
Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg's bid to remove religious belief as a bar from becoming monarch failed to find support in Parliament.
The Succession of the Crown Bill was rushed through the House of Commons so that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first child – due in July – would become monarch, irrespective of gender.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg
It means that if their first child is a girl, she can become monarch even if she later has younger brothers.
This modernisation was widely supported, but earlier attempts by North East Somerset MP Mr Rees-Mogg to go further and remove religion as a bar from becoming monarch did not succeed.
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While an heir to the throne will now be able to marry a Catholic, the new laws will still exclude Catholics from succeeding the throne.
Mr Rees-Mogg described the current rules as a “grating unfairness”, adding that he thought the Church of England could still be protected as the established church in the UK.
He said: “From time immemorial the succession has gone to the eldest male heir, but since the Act of Settlement it has clearly had to go also to a Protestant, there has been a religious discrimination as well a discrimination on the grounds of sex.”
While pointing out that Monday night, when the issue was debated, was the anniversary of the death of King Henry VIII, he went on: “One of the glories of this modern age is that we are tolerant, that we are tolerant of different religions, that we believe that people practising other faiths is actually something to be welcomed and encouraged, has made us a stronger nation rather than a weaker nation, and that therefore there should no longer be a bar on the grounds of faith against the sovereign as long as you can make provision for the Established Church of England which there is and which I support. I think that circle can be squared by providing for a Regency.”
But Cabinet Office Minister Chloe Smith said there was no public support to allow Catholics to succeed to the throne. Introducing such a fundamental change would also undermine the Church of England at a time when “instability was not welcome”, she said.
Moving the Bill’s third reading, deputy Commons leader Tom Brake said it was a “remarkable achievement” the Government had managed to bring the changes in across the Commonwealth so quickly.
He said: “The effect of the proposed change is if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were to have a daughter and then a son, the daughter would precede the son in the line of succession.
“I’m proud this Bill will remove two long-standing pieces of discrimination and modernise and affirm the place of our constitutional monarchy.”
The legislation still has to clear the House of Lords.
2 Comments
by bath1946
Wednesday, January 30 2013, 11:43AM
“Like you VV it matters to me since not only, because it excludes Catholics, Moslems etc. is it divisive but also the monarchy stands as a symbol of unearned privilege, dispenses patronage, and the institution still costs money paid for by lesser mortals.
However the Queen has proved so dignified and justifiably popular that not only almost certainly she takes her office as Supreme Governor of the Church of England seriously, but it is only in the unlikely event of her abdication passing succession to an unpopular Charles that any attempt at reform (which Mr.Mogg's proposal is not) will be successful.”
by Viscount_V
Wednesday, January 30 2013, 9:43AM
“Who cares.... Unless Moggy has his eye on the throne??!
It's an outdated, divisive and socially damaging institution that has been responsible for the genocide of both catholics and protestants (not to mention countless others of all denominations) throughout its bloody history. I have nothing against the current ones personally but as long as they stand as a symbol of unearned wealth and privilege, Britain will never come close to a fair and equal society. Abolish them now and as my MP I respectfully request that Jacob stop wasting parliaments time with his idiosyncrasies.”