Jack Straw 'leading Government plans to end ban on Catholic monarchs'

By Kirsty Walker
Updated: 19:13 EST, 10 December 2008

The government has confirmed it is drawing up plans to overturn the 300-year ban on Roman Catholics becoming Monarch.

Downing Street wants to reform the law which also states that the monarch cannot marry a Catholic without forfeiting the throne.

Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy revealed that ministers were 'working hard' to overhaul Britain's constitutional laws.

The 1701 Act of Settlement bars all Catholics and anyone married to a Catholic from reigning. It also forces any monarch to reject Catholicism and gives legal precedence to male heirs in the line of succession.

Mr Murphy said that law almost certainly represented a breach of human rights.

He said: 'It's wrong to have a settled constitutional position that discriminates. It's not because I'm a Catholic that I feel it. It's unfair, wrong, and does not fit well into a modern sense of what Britain is about.'

Mr Brown is understood to be keen to pass the legislation quickly if Labour wins a fourth term at the next general election.

Although it remains a cornerstone of the British constitution, critics have long argued about its relevance in the 21st century. Even the Queen is said to be 'sanguine' about suggestions of changing it.

Mr Murphy revealed that Justice Secretary Jack Straw is 'working hard' on plans to reform the Act.

'He is putting an awful lot of work into it,'  he said. 'He is working hard and is pretty focused on it.'

Asked if the UK Government could come forward with a set of proposals to change the law before the next General Election, he replied: 'I'd like to see change. It's important we make progress before the next election but the truth is it won't be changed by then.'

Recent research suggests there are now more active Catholics than Anglicans in Britain, helped by the influx of Polish workers.

Prince Charles has indicated he wants the monarchy to champion people of all religions by adopting the title 'defender of faith'.

The former Home Secretary John Reid, who has called the law 'divisive' and 'offensive', said: 'There is now widespread recognition that this needs to be done and I hope that the Government can confirm, before the next election, that this will be part of our manifesto commitment.

'It is only right that, in a country where we pride ourselves on equality, any discriminatory elements against any section of our community should be removed from the British constitution.'

But the Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said: 'At a time of serious economic downturn, I believe the public would be amazed if the Government was giving any priority at all to amending a three-hundred year old constitutional settlement, particularly when to do so would presumably have no impact until, at the very earliest, the death of the next Monarch but one.'

The Act of Settlement states that only the Protestant heirs of Sophia, granddaughter of James I, can become King or Queen. It has been challenged over the years as being incompatible with principles enshrined in European law.

A law change would allow Prince William to marry a Catholic without forfeiting the throne

The succession issue was brought to light recently when Peter Phillip's wife Autumn Kelly was forced to convert to Anglicanism to allow him to keep his place in the royal succession.

The Canadian management consultant, who married Mr Phillips in May, was baptised a Roman Catholic. Under the law, he would have been forced to surrender his place as 11th in line to the throne if she had not converted.

In 1978, Prince Michael of Kent renounced his claim to the throne when he married Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, a Catholic divorcée.

Traditionally both Tory and Labour Governments have steered well clear of the issue - partly because of the potential implications for the Church of England as the established church of the land. The law is also thought to be too complicated.