Major blow to Tories as new House of Lords reforms hand huge advantage to Keir Starmer
Plans by Labour to abolish hereditary peers from the House of Lords will smash the Conservative Party ten times harder than Keir's party.
Keir Starmer’s plans to abolish hereditary peers from the House of Lords will hit the Tories ten times harder than Labour.
The new Labour government is planning to shake-up the House of Lords by removing its hereditary peers.
There are 92 hereditary peers in the Lords - all of whom are men and all of whom inherit their titles.
Some 89 of those are listed as currently active on the Parliament website, and you can get a full list of them here on the data below.
But hereditary peers are predominantly members of the Conservative Party - with a total of 46 of the active hereditary peers being Tories. That compares to just four who represent Labour.
Another four are Lib Dems, 33 are crossbench members, and two are non-affiliated.
Reform of the House of Lords was a key policy in the Labour manifesto, with the party pledging to remove hereditary peers as well as the introduction of a retirement age of 80.
Plans to get rid of the remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords is the biggest shake-up of Parliament in a quarter of a century.
One of the 92 left, a former leader of the Lords, Tory Lord Strathclyde, condemned the move.
Speaking in the Lords chamber, he argued it should be peers who rarely took part in debates who were axed.
Don't miss...
Assisted dying could be made legal as Parliament set to vote on new bill [LATEST]
Sir Keir Starmer urged to keep assisted dying promise as new Bill introduced [REPORT]
Frustrated King Charles appears to snap at page boy at State Opening [REVEALED]
Lord Forsyth, another Conservative former cabinet minister, said the removal of hereditary peers was a “naked attempt to disable opposition in this House”.
But Nick Thomas-Symonds, Constitution Minister and Welsh Labour MP for Torfaen, said the move was required in modern society.
He said: "The hereditary principle in law-making has lasted for too long and is out of step with modern Britain.
"The second chamber plays a vital role in our constitution and people should not be voting on our laws in Parliament by an accident of birth.
"This bill shows this government's commitment to delivering on our manifesto and is an important part of putting politics in the service of working people.”
Sir Keir Starmer is also in favour of abolishing the House of Lords and replacing it with an elected Assembly of the Nations and Regions.
