I have attached my name to amendments 1 and 2, but not to new clause 1. That is not because I particularly disagree with the point that the hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg) is trying to make in new clause 1, but in many ways because I am sensitive about such issues, as someone who is not a British national, but a citizen of the Irish Republic—that is the passport I carry; therefore I see myself as a citizen of a nation that does indeed have an elected Head of State.
I come to this House not to disrespect any of the institutions that are cherished by other Members and that are part of the British constitutional settlement. Where I can, I will support moves to remove and relieve aspects of discrimination wherever we find them. I said last week that this Bill does two valuable things in that it removes a layer of gender discrimination in the succession to the Crown and it lifts one layer of religious discrimination —the bar on a Catholic marrying the heir to the throne. However, as we heard in last week’s debate, those proposals in themselves leave many questions. As we heard, for some of us, one question concerns the remaining areas of discrimination, whereby anybody who at any stage in their lives had either been a Catholic or been deemed to be a Catholic would be barred from being an heir to the throne. In effect, it is the McCarthyite question: “Are you now or have you ever been a Catholic?” For anybody who has ever been a Catholic in any shape or form, that
is it—they are out; they count as dead for these purposes. Clearly that is wrong and anomalous. I do not believe that, in passing this Bill, the House should choose to say, “Well, we still want to keep that—it’s about right that we keep it.”
6.15 pm
That is what amendments 1 and 2 are really about. They essentially say that whatever arrangement might be made to accommodate someone who has been a Catholic or been deemed to have been a Catholic—or who deem themselves to have been a Catholic—that person cannot be barred from succeeding to the throne on the basis that they have been a Catholic at any stage in their lives. That is why I put my name to amendments 1 and 2—because I believe they simply remove that remaining discrimination.
The main reason for not putting my name to new clause 1 is simply respect for the Church of England. Obviously I am not an Anglican, and I am not even English. In many ways I feel sorry for the Church of England. In a way, because it is an established Church, everybody keeps taking slices off it, on one issue or another. In many ways, we as legislators find ourselves invited to vote or decide on matters pertaining to the Church of England, whereas I would be much more comfortable not encroaching on any matter relating to the Church of England’s life as a Church. That is why I have not put my name to new clause 1, which does at least deal cleverly and constructively with the other question that arose for Members last week, which was: if the heir to the throne were allowed to marry a Catholic, what would happen if a child of that marriage was then a Catholic? That would affect issues around the succession to the throne—it would affect the Protestant ascendancy, as we heard last week—as well as the Church of England.
The hon. Member for North East Somerset has tried to address and reflect on the arguments and concerns that arose on both sides of the issues raised by this Bill. I therefore hope that the Government will respond to this debate by making it clear that they agree that Parliament will have to go further, because to say, “Well, we don’t have any more to do,”—to suggest that the possibility of a Catholic marrying the heir to the throne and their children perhaps being raised as Catholics would not raise any future questions—leaves us with a doubt, which a number of us also expressed last week, about clause 3(1). We are concerned that the power of controlling marriages—which, for the first six people in line to the throne, remains in the hands of sovereign under this Bill—will in effect be the way to deal with any risk that might arise of someone who has been raised as a Catholic at any point being close in the line of succession to the throne.
There are therefore genuine issues and questions left by the degree to which the Government have legislated to date, as well as the form and limits of the legislation to date. Unless those other issues are addressed—by these amendments or others—the Government will leave us still harbouring the doubt that clause 3(1) is really about ensuring that the issues opened up by clause 2 will never actually arise in practice. I do not believe that is good enough. We as legislators cannot say, “We’re going to put in place flawed legislation that we know gives rise to all these other questions, but we’re content either that it’s not going to happen or that it’s not going
to happen soon enough.” As legislators, we have to address things in our time according to what is right, what is fair and what is proper. In the 21st century, we should not be leaving any residual form of discrimination against any person of any one religion.