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A leading hereditary peer has warned that he and other aristocratic parliamentarians are gearing up to battle the UK government over its plan to axe them from the House of Lords.
Lord Tom Strathclyde, former Tory leader in the House of Lords, signalled that he and a number of colleagues plan to fight legislation introduced by the government on Thursday to abolish the UK’s 92 hereditary peers.
“We very much oppose the bill,” he told the Financial Times.
Labour promised in its election manifesto to remove peers who are entitled to seats in the upper chamber on account of their birthright, in one of the biggest constitutional changes in more than a quarter of a century.
Ministers expect the new legislation will proceed swiftly through its House of Commons stages by Christmas, before passing to the Lords for further scrutiny.
Labour figures are bracing for possible delays once the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) bill reaches the upper chamber, however, fearing a clutch of hereditary peers will table a deluge of amendments that could hold it up.
Strathclyde accused the government of breaking an agreement to preserve 92 seats for hereditary peers made in 1998 by then-prime minister Tony Blair, who axed more than 660 hereditary lords from the upper chamber a year later.
Strathclyde argued the legislation brought in by Sir Keir Starmer’s administration was a “blunt instrument” that did “nothing to improve the workings of the House”, and would leave appointments solely in the hands of the prime minister of the day.
Labour officials are also aware that other non-hereditary peers may attempt to amend the bill to change the make-up of the House of Lords in different ways, such as by changing the representation of various faiths in the chamber.
Amendments regarding the composition of the House of Lords are set to be deemed “in scope” of the bill and will therefore have to be given time to be debated, the party officials said.
While the government is confident of overturning any such ploys, it could be 18 months until the hereditary peers are removed from the chamber.
Ministers are hopeful of finalising the bill within this session of parliament before the next King’s Speech, when the government will list the next tranche of bills it plans to bring forward.
Officials pointed out that the UK is one of the last few countries worldwide with a hereditary element to its parliament.
The move will also benefit Labour politically by rebalancing the upper chamber, given the majority of party-affiliated hereditary peers are Conservatives while only a handful are Labour politicians.
Given that all the current hereditary peers are male, because of the way titles are passed down through the generations via male heirs, their removal will also improve the gender balance in the House of Lords.
The FT first reported in March that Labour would expedite plans to oust hereditary peers in its first term in power, while postponing some other major constitutional reforms.
Labour insiders have indicated the government will allow the ousted legislators to retain access to the Palace of Westminster, where the Lords chamber is located — and its subsidised restaurants and bars — as a sweetener.
Cabinet office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said the legislation was a “landmark reform to our constitution” and “an important part of putting politics in the service of working people”.
He insisted the “hereditary principle in lawmaking has lasted for too long and is out of step with modern Britain”.
