Calls for reform as royal fiancée drops Catholicism

CALLS for an end to the Act of Settlement have been renewed after the fiancée of the Queen's grandson converted to Anglicanism in order to protect his succession to the throne.

Autumn Kelly, 29, confirmed she had renounced her Catholicism just weeks ahead of her wedding to Peter Phillips, who is 11th in line to the throne.

Although Buckingham Palace has insisted she did this of her own accord, the Catholic Church of Scotland said the move highlighted that the anachronistic law needed to be changed.

A spokesman for the Catholic Church said: "This is nothing short of state-sponsored sectarianism. It has highlighted the discrimination inherent in the law."

Canadian Ms Kelly, who is due to marry Mr Phillips on 17 May, was raised a Catholic.

But Buckingham Palace said last night: "She was welcomed into the Church of England some time ago."

The spokesman could not give details of when this had occurred, adding that the palace could not speak for Ms Kelly as she was a private person.

However in August last year, Ms Kelly's mother, Kitty, gave permission for the Catholic Church to release records of her daughter's baptism in 1978, saying her daughter was proud of her religion.

The Church of St John Fisher in her home town, Pointe Claire, Ontario, declined to comment on her conversion.

If Mr Phillips had married a Catholic, he would have had to give up his right to be 11th in line to the throne.

Jim Devine, the MP for Livingston, who has called for the Act to be scrapped, said: "Clearly it would be naive not to suspect that somewhere some pressure came upon her over the implications."

Mr Devine said he was confident the government was moving towards reforming the 300-year-old Act.

For years the SNP has called for the Act to be repealed and Alex Salmond, the First Minister, has pledged to raise the issue with the Prime Minister.

Angus MacNeil, the SNP MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, said: "I wish them well but Peter Phillips has got as much chance of getting to the throne as a Dagenham dustman. If he was marrying a pagan, Satanist, Buddhist or Muslim, there would not be an issue, but clearly there is an anomalous discriminatory situation against Catholics."

The law – which also discriminates against women – has been labelled antiquated by MPs, and Gordon Brown has signalled that he would consider looking at reforming it.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, said "we are certainly ready to consider" reforming the Act and that he understood why people felt the ban was "antiquated".

Vera Baird, the Solicitor General, said that the entrenched right of males to succeed to the throne ahead of older sisters was "unfair" and "a load of rubbish". She also wants to repeal the law.

But the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, recently played down the chance of this happening. A change in the law would require all members of the Commonwealth who have the Queen as their sovereign to pass the law through their parliaments, too.

CHURCH FEARS

THE Act of Settlement was passed in 1701, during the reign of William III (William of Orange), and its primary aim was to ensure that the monarchy remained with a Protestant – Sophia of Hanover – and her descendants. The 1707 Act of Union extended the act to Scotland. There was also the concern that if a Catholic became monarch, then this would lead to the disestablishment of the Church of England, of which the British monarch is the head. The act states that no sovereign "shall profess the Popish religion or shall marry a Papist".