Keir Starmer Urged to Seize a ‘Once in a Generation’ Opportunity for Real House of Lords Reform

Keir Starmer’s Government must seize a “once in a generation opportunity” to properly reform the House of Lords, a leading constitutional scholar has told Byline Times.

The Labour party had promised to “abolish” Parliament’s second chamber. However, this promise was watered down to a commitment to eliminate the remaining hereditary peers as part of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, with further more fundamental reforms delayed.

However, Professor Meg Russell, director of the UCL Constitution Unit, a research centre which advises on constitutional change, argues that opportunities for such reform typically only come around every 30 years, so the Government must seize the opportunity for real change now.

She told Byline Times that “politicians argue constantly about Lords reform. There are lots of differences between the parties, but most importantly within the parties about what direction House of Lords reform should take – should it be elected? Should it be appointed? – and that tends to get in the way of legislation ever being introduced. Nick Clegg was the last person to introduce a bill, but it was killed in the House of Commons”.

The slim bill contains one measure, removing the hereditary peers who are able to vote on legislation by birthright, in keeping with Labour’s manifesto.

The measure is a continuation of reforms initially passed by Blair in 1999 when the then Labour Government removed 667 hereditary peers, leaving 92 in place as a compromise.

The passage of the bill has already been bogged down by dozens of opposition amendments from the Conservatives who oppose the reform.

Russell said “there are arguments and different interpretations of what’s been going on in the Lords some people would say it is to a degree filibustering, deliberately slowing it down”.

She added “obstructing this bill is not a way of retaining hereditary peers. That is not going to happen. It was in the manifesto, the House of Lords does not block manifesto bills, if it tried to block this bill it wouldn’t have public support”.

In a rare interview with the Telegraph Shadow Conservative Leader of the House, Lord Nicholas True, accused Keir Starmer of “jumping on the graves of 80 hard-working public servants, of whom over half are Conservatives” and said he “can end 600 years of history, reduce the number of independents in the House and sort of adjust the numbers marginally and put in a few trade unionists. That’s not a very proud legacy”.

Lord True warned that if Starmer went ahead with the bill and did not allow a “goodly number” of hereditary peers to remain, the Conservative party would play an obstructing role and engage in “very aggressive procedural action”.

Russell argued that Starmer should push ahead with further reforms such as introducing a retirement age for peers and a minimum attendance requirement within this bill, rather than waiting for a second opportunity.

She said “this is the first bill [on Lords reform] to reach the Lords from the government since 1999, 26 years ago, so if we want some reform just put it in this bill and then it will happen, because if we wait for the next one, we could be waiting for ever”.

She added, “This bill has got quite bogged down already, it speeded through the House of Commons very quickly. It’s had five days of debate at committee in the Lords as well as its second reading. I think any government that was thinking it will just do one short and simple bill, and then another short and simple bill is not going to want to do that second short and simple bill”.

Russell is not the only person urging Starmer to go further with the reform. Willie Sullivan, Senior Director Campaigns for the Electoral Reform Society said:

“We welcome the Government taking action to remove the remaining hereditary peers. This is a long-overdue measure as there is no place for legislating by birthright in a modern democracy.

“However, this must be the first step towards wider reforms to replace the bloated unelected Lords, which at over 800 peers is the second largest legislative chamber in the world after China’s National People’s Congress, with a smaller democratic chamber that has a set number of members.

“As ultimately, the people sitting in Parliament shaping our laws should be chosen by and accountable to the people who live under those laws.”

Professor Russell added that “the primary problem as I see it is the unregulated patronage power of the Prime Minister. The fact that the Prime Minister can, at any point, decide that he or she wants to put more members into parliament perhaps to strengthen their own side, perhaps to get their own legislation through. It is, as far as I am aware, unique”.