THE law that forces the oldest daughter of a monarch to make way for her younger brother in the succession is facing abolition under new equality legislation.

Ministers want to give equal rights to women to succeed to the throne, superseding the provisions in the 1701 Act of Settlement.

Vera Baird, the solicitor-general, who is to help steer a new equality law through the Commons, said the entrenched right of males to succeed to the throne ahead of their older sisters was “unfair” and “a load of rubbish”.

She added: “I have always thought that what we have to do with the royal family is integrate them as far as possible into the human race.”

She also wants to repeal the law banning the heir to the throne from marrying a Catholic. “The ban on Catholics should be abolished, too, because that is discriminatory,” she said.

The single equality bill, to be drafted later this year, will bring together existing laws on sex discrimination, age, race, disability, sexual orientation and religion.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has indicated his support for the reform in a letter to Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat equality spokes-woman. He said the quango was “thinking about whether we might look at this further in the context of our thinking on new equality law”.

Featherstone said she was optimistic that there was cross-party support for reform. “We can’t have a law that is meant to fight government discrimination and injustice and allow a blatantly sexist law on royal succession to continue,” she said.

“This is the perfect time to do this when there is no one who will be personally affected. It shouldn’t create a hue and cry.”

A change in the law would not alter the current line of succession. However, if Prince William’s oldest child was a girl, and he also had a younger son, the daughter would become Queen.

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