Today’s the day we’ve been waiting for, plans have been laid for the final 92 hereditary peers to lose their places in the Lords!
For over 700 years the House of Lords has contained Peers placed there because of their family titles – Dukes, Earls, Viscounts and Barons – all of which are white men with an average age of just below 70. But now, in 2024, the antiquated practise will finally be laid to rest. Campaigners are rejoicing that this blight on our democracy will finally be cleaned up.
The final step in removing all the hereditary peers
We have long campaigned for the abolition of the hereditary peers, believing that being a member of the aristocracy does not entitle you to a job for life in one of the most powerful decision-making bodies in the UK. This is not the first time a Labour government has made reforms to this archaic tradition, almost a quarter of a century ago in 1999 the Blair government introduced The House of Lords Act (1999) which stripped all but 92 hereditary peers of their right to sit in the House of Lords. These remaining 92 were then elected by their ennobled friends and have been voting to replace themselves whenever a seat on the red benches comes free ever since.
There’s public support for a fairly elected Lords
Public support for a fully elected House of Lords has been strong and consistent for a long time, the most recent YouGov tracker on the House of Lords showed that in January 2024 close to half of Brits (49%) favour a fully elected second chamber, trouncing a jointly appointed and elected chamber on 25% and a mostly appointed chamber on 7%.
There’s still room for further reform
The size of House of Lords is staggering, this swollen institution is losing some of its bloat with the removal of the 92 hereditary peers but it will still stand at 713 members, still an outrageous number by international standards.
A 2008 government white paper suggested that with daily average attendance around 400, a chamber of between 400 and 450 members would provide the same number of members to do the work of the Lords as there is at present. Daily attendance has not changed greatly since that report. The average attendance since 1999 is 417 members and from 2019 to 2023 the average has been 372.
It’s time to finish the job on Lords reform
Whilst the removal of the hereditary Peers is cause for celebration, the fight is not yet finished – we need a fully elected, smaller, territorial second chamber forum in which the UK’s constituent parts could work together in the 21st century. It would guarantee a voice for the nations and regions of the UK, to speak as one, to scrutinise legislation and our constitutional settlement with clear communities in mind.
Ultimately, it should be the people of this country, not prime ministers, who choose who sits in the upper house of parliament shaping the laws we all live under.
Add your name to our call to place power rightfully back in the hands of the people →