Hand-Delivered Constitutional Appeal

Erosion of Public Trust Threatens Parliament’s Democratic Mandate

As 835 Letters Land in Westminster, a Rare Civic Appeal Urges the Lords to Uphold Their Constitutional Duty and Resist Legislative Overreach

Today in Westminster, a striking and symbolic act of democratic engagement took place.

835 individually addressed letters were hand-delivered to members of the House of Lords through a grassroots initiative spearheaded by Rabbi Asher Gratt, President of the British Rabbinical Union.

This extraordinary outreach is not a protest. It is a constitutional appeal.

The message? That the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, currently before Parliament, poses a grave and imminent risk to the UK’s long-standing commitment to religious liberty, family autonomy, and pluralism in education.

“This Bill dismantles the very democratic foundation on which Parliament stands,” said Rabbi Gratt. “A law that empowers the state to intrude into family life and suppress parental rights constitutes a constitutional rupture—one that breaks the covenant between Parliament and the people, and with it, Parliament’s moral legitimacy to govern.”

Behind the Bill’s well-meaning title, the campaign warns, lies a transfer of power from families to the state—threatening the foundational freedoms that have long defined British life: the right to believe, to live, and to raise one’s children in accordance with conscience.

The letter contends that Clause 36 and related provisions will enable local authorities to impose ideologically defined standards on what constitutes “suitable” education, with vague terms open to political manipulation. It flags specific dangers:

· Compulsory registration of home-educated children;· State power to decide who is “fit” to educate;· Authority to override traditional religious curriculums.

Rabbi Gratt warns this could result in “the quiet normalisation of state intrusion into the conscience of families,” marking “a shift unseen in modern British history.”

The legal community appears to agree. The letter references opinions from leading KCs—including Mark Hill, David Wolfe, and Aidan O’Neill—who describe the Bill respectively as a breach of human rights, a gross invasion of parental authority, and “state surveillance of family life on an unprecedented scale.”

The campaign has been precisely timed: as parliamentary momentum builds, more than two dozen Lords—including senior Conservatives, bishops, and crossbenchers—have already raised constitutional objections, challenging both the content of the Bill and its sweeping ‘Henry VIII powers.’ Lord Baker has warned that the Bill represents ‘a major change of power in this country.’

While the Government denies ideological bias, the campaign calls for clause-by-clause scrutiny and demands that education remain within the remit of parents—not Ministers.

“Let this not be remembered as the moment Parliament legislated away Britain’s pluralism,” the letter concludes. “Let it be the hour when Parliament reaffirmed the freedoms that define our nation.”

On the reverse of each letter, six QR codes provide instant access to legal opinions, formal submissions, and expert commentary explaining the wider implications of the Bill.

With this mass delivery, a new phase of national debate begins—one that transcends party politics and strikes at the heart of Britain’s constitutional identity and the trust between state and citizen.