In Andy Burnham we have the first prime minister who openly backs proportional representationAndy Burnham’s rise to Downing Street means that for the first time in modern history we have a prime minister who is openly committed to proportional representation. In recent years the new Labour leader has...Posted 20 Jul 2026
What legacy does Keir Starmer leave on democratic and electoral reform?This week we are witnessing an increasingly familiar sight – a change of prime minister. Keir Starmer has left office just over two years after winning a landslide and made way for Andy Burnham. During...Posted 20 Jul 2026
Hereditary peers have left the Lords for the last timeSometimes change arrives with fanfare. Sometimes it arrives quietly, after years of argument, delay and unfinished business. This week, the final hereditary peers lost their automatic right to sit and vote in the House of...Posted 30 Apr 2026
The end of the Hereditary Peerage: A long campaign and an important victoryWe saw a big victory last night as the bill to remove the last hereditary peers from the House of Lords finally passed. The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill means the remaining 84 hereditary...Posted 11 Mar 2026
Hereditary peer ‘back door’ compromise risks undermining manifesto promiseIt seems the legislative game of hide and seek around the bill to remove the hereditary peers from the Lords is over and it is now entering its endgame. We highlighted recently that things had...Posted 09 Mar 2026
Missing, in-action: What happened to the bill to remove the Hereditary Peers?It is not often we get to indulge in the mystery genre here at the ERS; however, this blog will delve into the curious incident of the missing Hereditary Peers bill. The bill, a straightforward...Posted 25 Feb 2026
MPs form new cross-party group aimed at wholesale Lords reformThis week, MPs and peers from across the political spectrum announced plans to form a new all-party parliamentary group on ‘wholesale’ Lords reform. The trigger was the very real sight of unelected peers using obscure...Posted 10 Feb 2026
How can someone be removed from the House of Lords?When peers make headlines for the wrong reasons, the same question inevitably arises: how do you actually remove someone from the House of Lords? The recent cases of Lord Mandelson and Baroness Mone have thrust...Posted 04 Feb 2026
Lords-a-delaying? How our unelected chamber is stalling for timeIt’s beginning to look a lot like… a hold up? In recent months, several government bills have been facing extended scrutiny in the House of Lords. While careful examination of legislation is an important part...Posted 16 Dec 2025
Latest peerages mean government has replaced the hereditary peers – before they’ve even left the LordsKeir Starmer himself not long ago described the wholly unelected and grossly bloated House of Lords as ‘indefensible’. Nothing has changed since then so it was deeply disappointing to see even more peers being stuffed...Posted 11 Dec 2025