British MPs balk at oath to queen

LONDON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A tripartisan group of British legislators wants to drop the oath of loyalty to the queen, saying their loyalty should go to the country and their constituents.

Most of the 22 members urging the change are from the Labor and Liberal-Democratic parties, The Daily Mail reports. The group includes a lone Conservative.

Members of both the House of Commons and House of Lords have sworn allegiance to their sovereign at least since Tudor times. The oath taken in recent years reads: "I swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law. So help me God."

Proponents of change say legislators should swear allegiance to their "constituents and the nation."

Traditionalists suggested Thursday the anti-oath group really wants to pledge allegiance to the European Union.

"This seems to me to be an attack upon the state itself," said Norman Tebbit, a former Conservative Party chairman now in the House of Lords. "The monarch is the one embodiment of the state which is outside the political, partisan process."