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17
Nov
‘Sadly Inevitable’ that hereditary peers will be abolished, says Harrogate peer
A Harrogate peer has said it is “sadly inevitable” that the House of Lords will have to reduce in size amid the government’s planned reforms.
The Labour government is planning to reform the chamber as part of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, which would see all 92 hereditary peers abolished from the House of Lords. This would mean their seats would no longer be automatically passed down to their children.
At the moment, around 800 people sit in the House of Lords, 26 of which are bishops.
During a debate on the planned reforms, Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate, who was given a life peerage in 2016, said it was inevitable that the number of peers would need to be reduced.
However, he suggested that some could be offered life peerages.
He said:
As for the numbers, from my point of view it seems clear that, beginning with the Tony Blair changes, it is sadly inevitable that hereditaries will lose their rights.
However, we know there are a notable number of Peers in this category whose service to the House has been, and still is, enormously important and whose contributions should not be lost. I hope that a compromise can be reached to allow life peerages to be created to cover that issue.
The move comes as Alec Shelbrooke, Conservative MP for Wetherby and Easingwold, which includes parts of the Harrogate district, has backed the reforms.
When the Stray Ferret asked Mr Shelbrooke if he supported abolishing hereditary peerages, he said:
I’d hazard a guess that all 650 MPs believe there should be reform of the House of Lords, but there will be 650 suggested ways to do it.
On a point of principle, I’ve long argued that there should be no reserved seats for bishops in the Lords; the only other country to have religious clerics in its legislature is Iran.
Personally, I’d like to see full reform of the upper chamber, with a mix of life peers by appointment and proportional representation used to elect members for a time-limited period between elections, in order to carry out its work as a revising chamber. The proposed government reform is half-hearted.
Members of the House of Lords are called peers. Like MPs, they scrutinise legislation and challenge the government, but they are not elected into the role.
There are currently three ways of becoming a peer. Hereditary peers inherit peerage from their parents, while people who hold certain job roles, like bishops, automatically reserve a seat.
Most peers are appointed by the monarch after being recommended by the Prime Minister.
MPs in the House of Commons voted to back the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill on Tuesday. It will now go to the House of Lords to be voted on.
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