A Labour MP has put pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to “move to a better position” on the UK’s constitution.
Speaking at a fringe event held by Labour for a Republic on Monday, Poole MP Neil Duncan-Jordan issued a direct message to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues.
Duncan-Jordan, who defeated serving Tory MP Robert Syms by just 18 votes, also urged attendees to take the constitutional argument back to their CLPs and trade unions.
Closing the event, Duncan-Jordan said: “What this evening shows is that we have a legitimate right inside the Labour Party to have a proper discussion about the nature of our democracy.
Labour MP puts pressure on Starmer to abolish monarchy – ‘Move to a better position!’GB News/PA“And if we fail to do that we are missing the very purpose of the party.
“We should be debating, discussing and through that process we will hopefully be moving to a better position.
“If we close down that debate, if we say it’s not a legitimate area for debate then we’re never going to make progress in social justice, inequality, democracy and so on.”
After urging attendees to take the message to their CLPs and trade unions, Duncan-Jordan added: “It’s through that debate that we win over people to a different point of view.”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Labour for a Republic has demanded an extension of the Equality Act to cover those working for the monarchy, an increase in transparency by including the Crown in the Freedom of Information Act, revisiting royal funding and modernising the oath of allegiance for MPs.
The group also cited polling which was showing support for the Firm slipping in recent years.
However, a recent YouGov poll conducted in August revealed that 65 per cent of Britons support retaining the Royal Family, with just 25 per cent preferring an elected head of state.
A staggering 94 per cent of Tory voters support the UK staying as a constitutional monarchy, with 55 per cent of Labour voters also wanting to maintain the status quo.
Despite the Prime Minister once voicing republican views, the Labour Party remains supportive of the Royal Family.
Labour for a Republic
GB News
During the 2020 Labour leadership election, Starmer argued for downsizing the Firm.
A Starmer spokesman later called the Royal Family “a beacon of hope for millions”.
However, in an unearthed clip from 2005, a 39-year-old Starmer said: “I got made a Queen’s Counsel, which is odd since I often used to propose the abolition of the monarchy.”
A number of Labour MPs continue to beat the dream of Britain becoming a republic, including Jeremy Corbyn’s former Shadow Defence Secretary Clive Lewis.
Lewis was forced to swear his oath of allegiance twice after staging a protest claiming he was initially doing so “under protest and in the hope that one day my fellow citizens will democratically decide to live in a republic”.
Duncan-Jordan, who argued tradition is “peer pressure from dead people”, also voiced his unease with swearing the oath of allegiance to King Charles.
Discussing the process after his shock election victory, Duncan-Jordan said: “I was told I would either have to make an oath or swear, depending on whether you’re religious or not. I wrote to the procedure office and said I don’t really want to do either of those things, can I do something else?
“I thought, as a brand new MP, that was a reasonable, honest request. They wrote back to me and said ‘no, you can only do one of those two things’.”
He added: “I was hoping to have a grown up discussion in the 21st century about the nature of British democracy and what our constitution looks like.”
Attendees were also handed copies of anti-monarchy literature.
A piece penned by Labour for a Republic’s Ken Ritchie said: “There cannot be much in the case for republicanism … that a huge majority of Labour members would not support.
“We all want more equality of political power and we want our politicians and state institutions to be more accountable to us.”