Andy Burnham is removing a Victorian-era law that singled out Catholics and Jews. Why now?

There is no separation of church and state in Britain. The Church of England, part of the Anglican Protestant faith, is the state church, answerable to parliament.

One of the constitutional functions of a British prime minister is to advise the monarch – who is also head of the Church of England – on the appointment of Anglican bishops and archbishops. Yet Catholics and Jews are explicitly barred from doing so.

Burnham is the first British prime minister to profess the Catholic faith upon entering office. Under existing British law, if as a professed Catholic he followed his predecessors and advised the British king Charles on the appointment of a bishop, he would be automatically disbarred from all civil and military office.

On Wednesday, the House of Commons debated a Church Appointments Bill to remove the bar on Jews and Catholics advising the sovereign on this specific issue, which arose from discriminatory laws passed in the mid-19^th century.

The path to become prime minister asks if the person “professes” the Catholic or Jewish faiths. Johnson replied “No” when he took office in 2019. As a baby, his mother had him baptised as a Catholic, but he was later confirmed as an Anglican in his teens.

It is accepted, however, that Johnson reverted to Catholicism while he served in Downing Street. While prime minister, he got married in Westminster Cathedral to a practising Catholic, Carrie Symonds and their children were also baptised in the Catholic cathedral, where the couple are now registered as parishioners.

As the existing laws specifically affect only Catholics and Jews, there was no legal bar on advice from Sunak or Keir Starmer, an atheist. Benjamin Disraeli, who became prime minister in 1868, was born into a Jewish family but was also later baptised Anglican.

The existing law only became an issue for British prime ministers in recent years, as Tony Blair converted to Catholicism after he left office in 2007.

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Not really. Catholic or Jewish prime ministers could delegate the job of advising on bishops. While he was prime minister, Johnson chose to delegate it to his lord chancellor (justice secretary) Robert Buckland. Burnham has also temporarily delegated the power to Alex Norris, the holder of that post in his government.

Also, it is debatable whether the prime minister really “advises” the king at all on church appointments. Under constitutional reforms introduced by Gordon Brown, the prime minister only “advises” the monarch on an appointment after a single name has already been chosen and proposed by the church.

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The advice is just a formality, yet UK government minister Hamish Falconer, who spoke in the House of Commons on Wednesday when the new law was debated, said it was important that the bar was removed so that a prime minister’s faith could never be a bar to them fulfilling all of the duties of their office.

In barely 60 minutes, the new Bill was fast-tracked through its second and third readings in the House of Commons and also committee stage.

There was a short debate, but no party opposed it. The DUP’s Jim Shannon said the removal of the bar affecting Catholics and Jews was to be “welcomed”. The Tories said it was an “anomaly that needed correcting”.

As it has passed all stages in the Commons, the Bill now moves to the House of Lords, where it is expected to pass with no issues. It will become law when it gets royal assent from the king.