Some members of the House of Lords should be directly elected and represent nations and regions of the UK, a hands-up poll of a small Newcastle audience agreed following a talk by Lord Shipley, former Liberal Democrat leader of the City Council.
The Lords currently has 853 members, of whom about 828 are eligible (able to attend) according to the House of Lords Library. The remainder are on leave of absence, disqualified or suspended.
Of those eligible, 713 are life peers, 85 hereditary, 24 bishops and six senior judges. Unlike the current House of Commons, the Conservatives have the largest number, with 283, while Labour have 210 and the Liberal Democrats 75. There are 179 cross-benchers (independents), and 269 eligible members are women. The average age of peers is 71.
Shipley told his audience of a few dozen at Jesmond Library in Newcastle that 15 peers had current home addresses in North East England. He said he was the only eligible member with an address in Newcastle. The UK was an outlier in having no territorial representation in its upper chamber.
Shipley described the Lords as weak in formal powers but strong in persuasive powers and expertise. The House of Lords Appointments Commission did a good job in ensuring any gaps in areas of expertise were filled.
A bill to abolish hereditary peers passed the Commons about a year ago but was amended by the Lords to allow existing hereditaries to remain but not be replaced. The amendment was rejected by the Commons and the bill is expected back in the Lords early next year.
The Brown Commission
The Labour Party set up a Commission in 2020 under the chairmanship of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to explore constitutional reform, devolution, and ways to rebuild trust in UK governance. When it reported in December 2022 it recommended, among other things, that the “indefensible” House of Lords should be “cleared out” and replaced with a smaller, more representative and democratic second chamber: an Assembly of the Nations and Regions which would ensure that the constitutional limits on government power were obeyed and that power was truly shared with the devolved legislatures and across England.
“The new second chamber should complement the House of Commons with a new role of safeguarding the UK constitution, subject to an agreed procedure that sustains the primacy of the House of Commons”, said the Commission. “The new second chamber must have electoral legitimacy, and should be markedly smaller than the present Lords, chosen on a different electoral cycle – with the precise composition and method of election matters for consultation.”
Backing for territorial peers
The Jesmond meeting voted by a large majority at the end of Shipley’s talk that the Lords should not be wholly elected, apparently because the audience valued the expertise that some appointed life peers bring to Parliament. The precise proportions that should be elected and appointed was barely discussed, but there was an apparently large majority in favour of a territorial link for members of the new chamber. There was no dissent when Shipley said everyone agreed they could not defend hereditary peers any longer.
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