My daughter can switch gender to inherit, says Earl
Lord Balfour devises an ingenious way for his daughter to inherit – declare she is a man
The Earl of Balfour, who has four daughters but no son, thinks he may have found a way for his eldest to inherit his title: she could become a man under a proposed amendment to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. He said: “What is there to stop someone from changing gender and taking a title?”
IT COULD be a very modern solution to a centuries-old problem.
The Fifth Earl of Balfour believes he has found a way for the eldest of his four daughters to inherit his title.
As the law of primogeniture stands, the Balfour title will pass to his lordship’s younger brother. His own children will inherit neither the title nor the family home – because all four are female.
But Lord Balfour has spotted a loophole. All he needs, he believes, is for one of them to declare herself a man and the earldom will be hers.
He says the doors to constitutional change have been thrown open by the prospect of amendments to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, which may allow women legally to transition to men and vice versa without medical checks.
The proposed changes, endorsed by Theresa May, have made a mockery of the outdated and ancient rule of primogeniture, the Earl said yesterday. “As
‘When I meet my maker, one of my daughters could declare that there has always been a man screaming to get out of her female body’
‘When I die, you just take the title, darling. You see if anyone will fight you over it’
far as I can see, when I meet my maker, that very day one of my daughters could declare that there has always been a man screaming to get out of her female body.”
Lord Balfour, 68, is furious his eldest, Lady Willa Franks, will not inherit the title Countess Balfour, a peerage created in 1922 for Arthur Balfour, the former Conservative prime minister. Instead, the earldom will pass to his younger brother, the Hon Charles George Yule Balfour, as will his family home, Burpham Lodge.
Lord Balfour said that if the changes went ahead, Lady Willa “could thus claim my hereditary title as a son and how could current law be applied to argue with that? What is there to stop someone from changing gender and taking a title? I think it would be interesting question for constitutional lawyers. Surely the time has come when we can nominate which child we want to be our successor, regardless of their current, past or future gender.” The Earl said that other members of the nobility could be tempted to change gender in order to prevent titles from passing out of the immediate family. “I can think of one person, who shall remain nameless, who has only got a daughter,” he continued. “I think with this gender recognition act, he’d say to his daughter: ‘when I die, you just take the title, darling. You see if anyone will fight you over it.’” Lord Balfour wants to change the law, which presently permits only a small number of titles to pass to either a male or female. However, he is frustrated that while Parliament has been quick to change the rules on royal succession, there is no sign for members of the nobility.
“It does need addressing,” he said. “It seems ridiculous that the Royal family has changed its rules of succession, and yet that hasn’t been applied to everyone else.” Countess Balfour, 67, eldest child of the 17th Duke of Norfolk, is equally aggrieved. She was herself denied the opportunity to inherit her father’s seat of Arundel Castle, which passed to her brother Edward in 2002.
“There’s nothing else in England really that discriminates against women in this way,” she said. “A girl can be a judge, prime minister, even a monarch.
“My daughter is extremely accomplished, she is successful, she’s a great mother and a great wife, and she would be perfect to follow in Rod’s footsteps.”
Under the current Gender Recognition Act, an elder daughter who changes gender cannot supplant a male heir. But legal experts believe this could be in breach of article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, on discrimination, and articles one and eight of the Human Rights Act, on property rights and the right to a private and family life. The law has never been tested, however, because no transgender aristocrat has ever come forward to claim a title.
The reform of the Gender Recognition Act is now likely to include a clause on an exemption for hereditary titles being dropped.