---

Royal Marriages and Succession to the Crown (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill

I congratulate the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon (Dr. Harris) on his success with the Bill, and I would also like to declare an interest: I do not have a child who is anywhere in the line of royal succession, but I am the Member for North-West Norfolk and one of my leading residents—my leading resident—is Her Majesty, who has a home at Sandringham. The hon. Gentleman mentioned that he was very pleased that Her Majesty had consented to place her prerogative and interest at the disposal of Parliament for the purpose of this Bill, but I urge him not to get too carried away because Erskine May says:""The government's usual practice is to advise the granting of consent even to bills of which it disapproves. The understanding is that the grant of consent does not imply approval by the Crown or its advisers, but only that the Crown does not intend that, for lack of its consent, Parliament should be debarred from debating such provisions. It is possible for consent to be granted by the Monarch but for Royal Assent to be withheld. The consent of the Monarch does not necessarily reflect the Monarch's own personal view."" Therefore, I ask the hon. Gentleman not to get too carried away when he says—as he has done twice—that Her Majesty consents to the Bill. Obviously, what is needed is a long period of consultation. The hon. Gentleman must be quite frustrated and angry with Her Majesty's Government—but, on the other hand, he might not be. He might be quite chuffed that his Bill has received such an extraordinary amount of publicity over the last 24 hours. I welcome the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice to his place and apologise for the absence of my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve), but we were told earlier this week that today's business would be handled by the very capable Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the hon. Member for Dewsbury (Mr. Malik). However, something has happened in the meantime. The Prime Minister's visit to south America has gone badly wrong; there has also been horrendous news regarding the shortfall in the Government's recent gilt sale; and now there is every likelihood that next week's G20 summit could end up as an embarrassing shambles. Therefore, I suggest that some spotty, swivel-eyed spin doctor in No. 10—in the bunker—has come up with a brainwave to provide some diversionary headlines and his great idea was to hijack the good doctor's Bill. He has certainly succeeded, because as my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh) pointed out, there are headlines in every single paper: "Revolution at the Palace" in the Daily Mail, and "Royals could marry Catholics" in The Daily Telegraph. The Government have therefore certainly succeeded in diverting headlines, but what a way to run a Government. Surely we could have had a proper statement from the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State. After all, he was in the House earlier this week making a pretty lightweight statement on the Green Paper, "Rights and Responsibilities". I cannot, in fact, remember whether it was a Green Paper or a White Paper, but it was certainly not a big deal, so he could easily have used that occasion to make a statement on this matter. Such a serious issue should not be dealt with by the Government with a knee-jerk response on the back of an envelope, and I almost feel for the Lord Chancellor, who has been treated by the Government as a bit of a poodle.