UK unelected house advances bill to plan its own replacement

The proposal would require ministers to consult the public on a more democratic second chamber, putting pressure on the Labour government to deliver a constitutional reform pledge.MANCHESTER, England (CN) — Britain’s unelected House of Lords advanced legislation Friday that would require the government to consult on replacing the chamber, reigniting a debate over who should scrutinize the country’s elected lawmakers.Carmen Smith, a member of the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru party who introduced the bill, told peers that successive governments had failed to act on proposals to reform the upper chamber.“We’ve never been short of ideas, and we’ve never been short of debate, but we have been short of action,” she said.The House of Lords approved the bill at second reading, a parliamentary stage at which lawmakers debate a bill’s main principles, and agreed to send it to a Committee of the Whole House for further scrutiny.The vote does not abolish the chamber or commit Parliament to adopting a particular replacement.The bill would require the government to begin a consultation within six months of the legislation becoming law. The consultation would last at least 12 weeks, with ministers required to publish a summary of responses and the government’s position within six months of its conclusion.The proposal tests the Labour government’s commitment to replace the Lords with a smaller, more democratic chamber reflecting the nations and regions of the U.K.Government resists timetableLabour promised in its 2024 election manifesto to replace the House of Lords with an alternative second chamber and consult the public on how it should work.The party also pledged to remove hereditary members, introduce a retirement age and strengthen participation requirements for peers.The government has already removed the remaining hereditary peers’ right to sit and vote, with the change taking effect on April 29.But it has yet to begin the proposed consultation on a replacement.Fiona Twycross, a member of the upper chamber and government minister in the Cabinet Office, said Labour supported the principle of reform but opposed the bill’s approach.The legislation would constrain the government’s ability to deliver its manifesto commitment by “prematurely imposing a duty on the government to consult,” she said.The bill’s sponsor expressed disappointment with the government’s position, arguing that the legislation closely followed Labour’s own promise.Smith warned that failure to begin consulting before the next general election would leave the government short of fulfilling its pledge. She said the bill was intended to establish a timetable and ensure ministers responded publicly to the consultation.Conservative peer Nick Bourne also supported reform but disputed the bill’s approach.“It does propose the abolition of the House of Lords. It doesn’t propose the reform of the House of Lords,” he said.His objection reflects a broader disagreement over whether the existing chamber should be substantially reformed or replaced by an institution with a different membership and democratic mandate.Who gets a seat in the Lords?The House of Lords is the upper chamber of the U.K. Parliament, working alongside the elected House of Commons to scrutinize legislation, examine public policy and hold the government accountable.Unlike the Commons, its members are not elected by voters.The chamber has roughly 800 members. Most are life peers, appointed by the king on the prime minister’s advice.The independent House of Lords Appointments Commission recommends nonparty-political members and vets nominations, while political parties can put forward their own nominees.Prime ministers’ power to appoint peers has continually drawn criticism.In 2020, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Russian-British billionaire and media owner Evgeny Lebedev a peer — despite warnings from the security services, including MI5, which flagged national security concerns focused on his father, Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB officer.Twenty-six Church of England bishops also have seats by virtue of their positions.The Lords can amend legislation and ask the Commons to reconsider its decisions, although its powers are limited and the elected chamber retains the final say in most legislative disputes.Huw Macartney, associate professor of political economy at the University of Birmingham, has examined how wealth and privilege shape the chamber’s membership and participation.His research found that more than 260 peers held multiple individual shareholdings worth more than 100,000 pounds each, while about half of the chamber’s members received rental income from property.He argues that while the old aristocracy may be disappearing from the upper chamber, it has given way to what he terms an “assetocracy — members of the new financial elite whose power rests on property, finance and accumulated asset-based wealth.”His findings highlight a question facing reformers: whether replacing the chamber is necessary to improve democratic accountability, or whether changes to its existing membership could achieve the same aims.The bill’s passage through committee will provide the clearest opportunity for peers to examine the proposals.It must still pass further stages in the Lords and the Commons before becoming law.Courthouse News reporter James Francis Whitehead is based in England.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads