Deputy Prime Minister welcomes debate on succession laws
皇冠体育app Succession to the Crown Bill receives its Second Reading in the House of Commons today.
皇冠体育app debate will be opened by the Deputy Prime Minister.
Ahead of the debate, Nick Clegg said:
On Tuesday, Parliament will debate changes to the UK鈥檚 succession laws - the rules surrounding who will be King or Queen after Prince William.
皇冠体育app reforms couldn鈥檛 be more timely, given the fantastic news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting a baby. 皇冠体育app other Commonwealth countries where Her Majesty 皇冠体育app Queen is head of state have just given us the green light to change the law, and we are wasting no time.
At the moment, if the first child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is a girl, any younger brothers she has will overtake her in line to the throne. We鈥檙e modernising these out of date rules so that men and women in line to the Throne have equal rights.
皇冠体育app current law also says that our monarch can鈥檛 be married to a catholic. This legal ban doesn鈥檛 apply to any other faith - not Muslims, Jews, Hindus, nor to atheists. Just Roman Catholics.
皇冠体育app reasons for this go back 300 years, to the days when Britain was worried about the threat from its Catholics neighbours, such as Louis XIV of France.
Times have changed, along with our attitudes towards each other. It is time for us to bring these arcane laws up to date.