Fourteen members of the upper and lower houses of parliament will not swear allegiance to king Willem-Alexander when he takes over the throne on April 30.

The new king will technically be head of state and his investiture is constitutionally a special meeting of both houses of parliament.

Fred de Graaf, chairman of the senate, told television show Buitenhof on Sunday he thinks it is a shame that a number of MPs and senators will not swear the oath.’If you are going to attend [the ceremony] then you should do so,’ he said.

Most of the dissident parliamentarians said they still plan to attend the investiture in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam despite refusing to swear allegiance. Several others will be on holiday.

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Members of the Socialist Party, pro-animal PvdD and GroenLinks said earlier they will not swear allegiance. Now four Labour members have come forward.

Former Labour chairman Ruud Koole, now a senator, told Nos television the oath does not fit in with a modern monarchy and the text is archaic. The new monarch ‘should swear to uphold the constitution and that is where it should end,’ he said.