LONDON (AP) — Centuries of British political tradition will come to an end within weeks after Parliament voted to remove hereditary peers from the unelected House of Lords.
Members of the House of Lords raised objections on Tuesday night to legislation passed by the House of Commons that would expel dozens of dukes, earls and viscounts who have inherited seats in parliament and their titles of nobility.
Government minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said the change ended “an archaic and undemocratic principle”.
“Our Parliament should always be a place where talent is recognized and merit is valued,” he said. “It should never be a gallery for the old boys network, nor should it be a place with titles that override the will of the people, many of which were awarded centuries ago.”
The House of Lords plays an important role in British parliamentary democracy, scrutinizing legislation passed by the democratically elected House of Commons. But critics have long considered it clumsy and undemocratic.
Peter Mandelson resigned from the House of Lords in February amid revelations of his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a case that has drawn renewed attention to misconduct in the Lords and House of Lords.
The chamber currently has more than 800 members, making it the second largest legislative assembly in the world after China’s National People’s Congress.
For most of its 700-year history, its membership was made up of nobles – almost never women – who inherited their seats, along with a handful of bishops. In the 1950s, they were joined by “life aristocrats”—retired politicians, civic leaders, and other prominent figures appointed by the government—who now make up the vast majority of the House of Representatives. Currently approximately one-tenth of its members are hereditary nobles.
In 1999, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labor government expelled most of the 750 hereditary peers, but 92 of them were allowed to stay temporarily to avoid an aristocratic rebellion.
It would be another 25 years before Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s current Labor government introduced legislation to expel the remaining “hereditary heirs”.
The lords fought and forced a compromise that allowed an unknown number of hereditary members to remain by “re” becoming life peers.
Once King Charles III obtains royal assent (a form of formality), the bill will become law and the hereditary peers will depart at the end of this parliamentary session this spring, completing a political process that began a quarter of a century ago. In the words of the House of Lords, that was quick.
Labor remains committed to eventually replacing the House of Lords with an alternative second chamber that is “more representative of the UK”. If past experience is any guide, change will come slowly.
Nicholas True, leader of the opposition Conservatives in the House of Lords, told the House of Commons: “As a result, more than seven centuries of service in Parliament by hereditary peers is coming to an end.”
“Thousands of our colleagues are here serving their country and making thousands of improvements to the law,”
