Hereditary Titles (Female Succession) Bill

Debate between Harriett Baldwin and Chris Clarkson

2nd reading
Friday 23rd February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Chris Clarkson (Heywood and Middleton) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin) on her dogged determination. Sometimes, we just have to keep going with these things, and she is entirely right that this is a private Member’s Bill whose time has come. Trying to justify to anybody that we reserve a portion of seats exclusively to one sex or the other in either part of our legislature is a sticky wicket; certainly, I could not make a good fist of it. Women have had to fight for the same treatment as men—not better treatment or different treatment—at every stage of the way. I am extremely proud that one of my forebears was chained to the front of this building with Mrs Pankhurst.

[Harriett Baldwin]

I appreciate my hon. Friend’s supportive tone. I note for Hansard that he is the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the House of Lords.

[Chris Clarkson]

That is not the first time I have been outed. My hon. Friend is absolutely right: I spend quite a bit of time at the other end of the building with their lordships. In fact, the current Chief Whip in the House of Lord was my sponsor for my parliamentary assessment board. I must say that I am not the child of a peer or in line to inherit a peerage. The running joke is that I have been treating the PPS job as an apprenticeship for the past three years. However, I see the immense value of what happens in the other place, and the quality of some of the people there. It is baffling to me that we have a system designed to filter people entirely based on whether they have a Y chromosome.

We have already reached the determination that our royal family does not need to follow that precedent, and we reached it in conjunction with all the other Commonwealth realms. I also have Canadian heritage, so the King is my monarch twice over. I am very happy to know that, at some point, there will be a Crown Princess or a Princess of Wales who will be the substantive holder of that title.

I am very thankful to my hon. Friend for taking on some of the feedback she received about the previous iteration of the Bill on grandfathering in some of these titles.

[Chris Clarkson]

My hon. Friend is entirely correct. However, the idea that saying, “Actually, we shouldn’t bother about women being treated differently in any walk of life,” would not get a reaction on the doorstep is bonkers, especially when it comes to female voters, who we certainly rely on—let’s not kid ourselves—in the Conservative party. I would not be able to justify saying that. I was shocked to hear that my hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire was told that the Bill was too much of a faff to carry out.

[Harriett Baldwin]

On that subject, the best way to find out if there are any objections would be to give the Bill a Second Reading today, send it to the other end and find out what is in that can of worms. Then we can move forward on that basis.

[Chris Clarkson]

As with many things in life, the best way is to suck it and see, so I absolutely—