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Catholic could become king in UK under plans to abolish Act of Settlement

by Dave Keating | September 25, 2008 at 12:39 am

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Gordon Brown is said to be considering making a move to abolish the Act of Settlement in the UK, which prevents non-protestants from marrying into the royal family or suceeding to the throne. Under the law, Roman Catholics, Muslims or Hindus are not allowewd to marry anyone in the royal family. But some legal scholars are saying the act is also the basis for the Church of England being the official religion of England, and that nullifying the act would also nullify the official status of the church.

The plan to abolish the Act of Settlement could ultimately lead to the disestablishment of the Church of England.

The Act also prevents Muslims and other non-Protestants from succeeding to the throne.

Scrapping it would also end the practice of primogeniture where male heirs are given priority in the succession. That could pave the way for a first-born daughter of Prince William to ultimately succeed him as monarch.

It was reported last night that Chris Bryant, a Labour MP drawing up options for contstitional reform, is backing the scrapping of the Act.

Mr Bryant, an aide to Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader, has now passed his recommendations to Wilf Stevenson, one of the Prime Minister's advisers.

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mchawk

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 00:45 on September 25th, 2008

Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Blimey - I thought primogeniture went out with the Arc! And I'm all for scrapping the primacy of the C of E - will that mean we can chuck their unelected backsides out of the Upper House?

Although this is a terribly British threat, I'd be intrigued to hear what others think. It'll probably make little sense to republicans (in the literal, non-party sense of that word).

Paul Conneally

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:48 on September 25th, 2008

Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff. Good stuff - not sure if not marrying a catholic applies to all the royal family as there are some uk royals that are catholic - is it that the act effectively stops anyone that marries a catholic or takes up the catholic faith from succesion to the throne? For instance the HRH The Duchess of Kent and HRH Princess Michael of Kent are both uk Royals who are also Catholics.