Oath of Allegiance (United Kingdom)

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1 Parliamentary oath
2 Armed forces
3 Citizenship ceremonies
4 References

[edit] Parliamentary oath

Members of both United Kingdom Houses of Parliament are required to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown on taking their seat in Parliament.^[1]^[2]

The usual wording of the oath is:

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.

Members who object to swearing the oath are permitted to make a solemn affirmation under the terms of the Oaths Act, 1888:

I ..... do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law.

The oath or affirmation must be taken in English although the Speaker has allowed Members to recite Welsh, Gaelic and Cornish forms in addition.

When the oath is taken, the new member holds a copy of the New Testament or, if Jewish, the Tanakh. Muslims or Sikhs would be sworn in the usual manner except a Qur'an (in an envelope, to avoid it being touched by one not of the faith), or Guru Granth Sahib respectively would be substituted for the Bible. Mohammad Sarwar, a Muslim, took the oath in this way in May 1997.

Religious restrictions in the oath effectively barred individuals of certain faiths (e.g. Roman Catholics, Jews and Quakers) from entering Parliament for many years. The restrictions were lifted by the Oaths Act 1888 after the six-year effort (1880–1886) of the noted atheist Charles Bradlaugh to claim his seat.

Today, members of Sinn Féin elected to represent constituencies in Northern Ireland refuse to take the oath, and are therefore unable to take their seats in Parliament, due to their refusal to swear allegiance to the Queen. It is unknown whether Sinn Féin MPs would take their seats if a new Oath without any mention of the Monarch or the Crown were to be drafted, as abstentionism has taken a unique philosophical direction in the decades since Nationalist MPs began to practice it.

[edit] Armed forces

All persons enlisting in the British Army and the Royal Marines are required by the Army Act 1955 to attest to the following oath:

I ..... swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will, as in duty bound, honestly and faithfully defend Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, in Person, Crown and Dignity against all enemies, and will observe and obey all orders of Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, and of the generals and officers set over me. So help me God.

The same oath is made by recruits to the Royal Air Force under the Air Force Act 1955, with the substitution of the words "air officers" for "generals".

No oath of allegiance is sworn by members of the Royal Navy, which is not maintained under an Act of Parliament but by the royal prerogative, or by Royal Marines officers, who unlike their Army counterparts are not enlisted before they are commissioned.

[edit] Citizenship ceremonies

The oath of allegiance, with the addition of the words "on becoming a British citizen" (or other type of British national, as appropriate), is also used at citizenship ceremonies, where persons being registered or naturalised in the United Kingdom are required to swear or affirm their allegiance to the Queen, as above, and additionally make a pledge to follow the laws of the country and uphold its democratic values. The applicants are then presented with their certificate of citizenship.