Gordon Brown has opened talks with Buckingham Palace on removing the 308-year-old law which bars members of the Royal Family from marrying Roman Catholics.

Discrimination against female heirs to the throne would also be scrapped under the proposals expected to be introduced next year, if the law were to be made retrospective the Princess Royal would move ahead of the Duke of York in the line of succession.

At present, members of the Royal Family are forbidden by the Act of Settlement from converting to Roman Catholicism or marrying someone from the Catholic faith unless they agree to being removed from the order of succession.
Male members of the Royal family take precedent over their female relatives, meaning that the Princess is further down the line of succession than her younger brothers and their children.

The …