A bill fast-tracking female diocesan bishops into the House of Lords has passed into law, reflecting politicians’ impatience to have greater equality among bishops who sit in the Lords.
The Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 received royal assent last Thursday. Under the legislation, for the next ten years, female diocesan bishops will be first in line to succeed current Lords Spiritual when they retire.
Only five sees guarantee places in the Lords – Canterbury, York, London, Winchester and Durham, and until now the other 21 go to the longest-serving diocesan bishops.
The first woman to benefit from the law is Rachel Treweek, who was announced last week as the next bishop of Gloucester. Her predecessor, Michael Perham, had a five-year wait between his 2004 installation as bishop of Gloucester and becoming a member of the House of Lords.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson suggested that having Church of England bishops in the Lords is outdated and may need to be rethought.
The Mayor of London and Conservative Party leadership hopeful was responding to a caller on his London radio station phone-in show at LBC Radio talking about the “Islamic inroads” into British life.
Mr Johnson, who many see as a future prime minister, said he was completely opposed to any sort of sharia law running parallel to UK law, adding: "I take great exception to some of the support that I see, and from clerics in the Church of England who come out in favour of this, who have said we should be a bit indulgent of this," he said.
He went on to question the proximity of the Church to the state in Britain. "It's an interesting fact that we have some clerical fossils in our legislature, we have bishops sitting, by right, in the Upper House and you may want to reflect on that. The separation of Church and state is not perhaps as thorough-going as you might like to think," he said.
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