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Call to end bar on Catholic monarch

The government is to consider abolishing the 300-year-old Act of Settlement that prevents Catholics ascending to the throne.

The move was revealed by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, after he unveiled his sweeping draft Constitutional Reform Bill yesterday.

While the bill did not include any move to abolish what Catholics say is legalised discrimination, the matter was raised in the Commons by the Livingston Labour MP, Jim Devine, a Catholic.

Describing the act as "legalised sectarianism which has no role in the 21st century", he called for it to be scrapped.

Mr Straw told him the position was complicated by the monarch's position as head of the Anglican church but accepted the law was seen as "antiquated" and said: "We are certainly ready to consider this."

However, abolishing the Act of Settlement would also require changes to the Act of Union, which safeguards the role of the Protestant Presbyterian Church in Scotland. And, given Prime Minister Gordon Brown's fears of the influence of Nationalists, the government may be reluctant to unpick parts of the legislation that formally holds the UK together.

Full story at The Scotsman.