By DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR and GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
Published: | Updated:
Andy Burnham will push an anti-discrimination law through the Commons in a single day today to allow the Catholic Prime Minister to advise the King on appointing Church of England bishops.
Labour will get all the lower house stages of the Church Appointments (Repeal of Discriminatory Provision) Bill through on Wednesday to repeal a ban on Catholic and Jewish prime ministers advising on senior Church of England appointments.
Mr Burnham is the first practising Catholic in No10 and, while the ban is in place, he has transferred responsibility for advising on Church appointments to Alex Norris, the Lord Chancellor.
Prime ministers traditionally advise the monarch on who should be offered senior roles in the Anglican Church, such as the archbishops of Canterbury and York, other bishops and cathedral deans.
But a Georgian law, the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, places a block on 'any person professing the Roman Catholic religion directly or indirectly' from advising on Church of England or Church of Scotland appointments.
The Jews Relief Act 1858, introduced during the reign of Queen Victoria, introduced a similar barrier for Jewish office-holders.
Labour will do all the lower house stages of the Church Appointments (Repeal of Discriminatory Provision) Bill to repeal a ban on Catholic and Jewish prime ministers advising on senior Church of England appointments
Prime ministers traditionally advise the monarch on who should be offered senior roles in the Anglican Church, such as the archbishops of Canterbury and York, other bishops and cathedral deans
In a House of Commons written statement last month, Mr Burnham said it was 'unacceptable for there to be a legislative bar against people of any faith performing all the functions' of his office.
The Bill would 'correct this antiquated and archaic anomaly', he added, and allow prime ministers practising any religion to give their advice.
Once it passes the Commons it will have to pass the Lords before being given Royal Assent and becoming law.
The PM's role in religious appointments is largely symbolic, with candidates interviewed and selected by a Church committee, on which the King is represented by the ecclesiastical secretary to the Crown and Lord Chancellor.
According to official guidance from the Cabinet Office, approval from the PM and the King is only sought 'once a candidate has been chosen and accepted the post'.
The Government said the short, targeted Bill will 'modernise the law to enable the PM, and any future Jewish or Roman Catholic PM to carry out the complete functions of their office'.
The constitutional conundrum over Church of England appointments was previously raised when Boris Johnson was PM.
Mr Johnson is widely accepted to have been Britain's first Catholic premier, despite his having entered Downing Street in 2019 as an Anglican.
When he was a baby, Mr Johnson was baptised into his mother's Catholic faith. But he was later confirmed into the Church of England while a pupil at Eton College.
The Tory politician was then said to have 'reverted' to Catholicism when he married Carrie Symonds at Westminster Cathedral – the largest Catholic church in England and Wales – while he was PM in 2021.
It was reported at the time of his wedding that Mr Johnson would pass his duties on Church of England appointments to his Lord Chancellor, Sir Robert Buckland.