George Trefgarne

The Succession to the Crown Bill is a constitutional can of worms

Today, the Succession to the Crown Bill will receive its second reading in the House of Commons. If one had to think of one person who would welcome this plan to ‘modernise’ the Monarchy, it would have to be that arch-Blairite, Baroness Jay of Paddington. But she popped up yesterday in her capacity as chair of the Lords’ Constitution Committee, to warn of the potential ‘unintended consequences’ of the Bill and to decry the use of the emergency fast track procedure to rush it through.

Surely some mistake? Actually, no. Baroness Jay arguably knows more than anybody about tinkering with the constitution, having made it her life’s work. Despite the consensus across parties and in the media, we ought to take her comments as a sign there is far more unease about this Bill behind the scenes than there is in public.

A hint of the trouble the Bill could bring, comes in clause 5, which says that once it is passed, none of its measures will actually come into effect until the Lord President, ie Nick Clegg says so. This is because the British Monarch is head of state of 15 other nations too. And although their governments have signed up to the plan, none of them has started the legislative process. So the Act will lie dormant, to be implemented at a later date.

Already, at home, the republicans are enjoying the opportunity to vote on the succession and the Labour MP Paul Flynn has put down a number of mischievous amendments. But the real trouble will come in countries like New Zealand and Australia, where the griping against the monarchy is quite widespread. Will the legislation pass? Or will it be amended to say, for instance, that Prince William should be the last monarch of the Bahamas? And what happens if a government in one of the Realms simply says.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in