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Ancient royal marriage law 'should be changed'

Gordon Brown was under mounting pressure yesterday to end the ban on Roman Catholics marrying into the Royal Family after one of his key constitutional advisers called for the law to be changed.

Lord Lester, the Liberal Democrat peer drafted in by the Prime Minister to advise on constitutional issues, told The Daily Telegraph that the centuries-old ban was "an injustice" that should now go.

The outspoken comments from the respected peer came after it emerged that Peter Phillips, the Queen's eldest grandson and 10th in line to the throne, might have to surrender his place in the succession. Mr Phillips, 29, the son of the Princess Royal, is now engaged to Autumn Kelly, 31, a Canadian management consultant who was baptised a Catholic. The fact was not mentioned in the Buckingham Palace announcement of the engagement last week.

But in a never-repealed provision of the 1701 Act of Settlement, which enshrined the Protestant ascendancy, British monarchs and their heirs are forbidden to become or even marry Catholics.

The legislation means that either Mr Phillips must give up his place in the line of succession or Miss Kelly must formally renounce the faith into which she was baptised.

Full story at the Daily Telegraph.

Is it an anachronism?

A spokesman for Alex Salmond, Scottish First Minister: "The First Minister has called over a period of many years for the discrimination in the Act of Settlement to be repealed. Discrimination has no place in a 21st century democracy, and he will continue to urge the Westminster government to take the necessary action to remove this blot from the UK's constitutional arrangements."

The Rev David Phillips, general secretary of the Church Society: "Britain is not, as some imagine, a secular state. In the political arena, in law and education there is still a strong Christian influence and active role. Over two thirds of people count themselves as Christian and the majority identify with the Church of England. It is perfectly reasonable therefore that the monarch should be asked to identify personally with the Christian faith. With the 1701 Act of Settlement a deliberate decision was taken that England, and separately Scotland, should be Protestant. This position has served Britain well for over 300 years."

Full story at the Daily Telegraph.