Scottish Catholic Observer

A SENIOR Labour peer has said the anti-Catholic act of settlement should be repealed to give daughters and Catholics equal rights to the throne before Prince William has children.

Lord Dubs (above) 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.

During question time in the House of Lords yesterday, Lord Dubs said the repeal of the act was long overdue.

“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,” he said. “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.”

Justice minister Lord McNally said the Government did not have ‘any current plans’ to change the position.

“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 added.

He said that discussions set up by the previous government were ‘proceeding under the chairmanship of the New Zealand government.’