LONDON — Britain is finally moving into the … 20th century?
Hereditary peers, who sit in the country’s House of Lords by birthright, soon face abolition under a plan being pushed by the new Labour government.
Thanks to titles handed down over generations, these aristocratic members of the House of Lords can still debate, amend and vote on legislation in the upper scrutiny chamber by a simple accident of birth.
It’s a democratic anachronism the British government argues is well out-of-date — and it’s drawn up a bill to end the practice.
The last gasp of the hereditary peers is a big moment in Britain’s constitutional history. Let POLITICO take you through five features Westminster-watchers will secretly miss after they’re gone.
1) Maverick characters
Britain’s hereditary peers sure are an eclectic bunch.
There’s John Attlee, the 3rd Earl Attlee. He’s the grandson of post-war Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee. But while John’s the spitting image of his Labour titan grandad, there’s a twist: this one’s a Tory.
One of the biggest critics of the plan to scrap the aristo lawmakers is Tom Strathclyde, the 2nd Baron Strathclyde. He’s argued the government should instead prioritize removing peers with low attendance rather than those there by birthright, and is a dab hand at punchy attack lines. Labour’s plans are “high-handed, shoddy [and] political,” he said.
His full name? Thomas Galloway Dunlop du Roy de Blicquy Galbraith.
Margaret Alison of Mar — that’s the 31st Countess of Mar, to you — retired in 2020. But she moonlighted as a farmer and is a former specialist goatscheese-maker. She served as deputy Lords speaker several times, so at least put her time wrangling unruly animals to good use.
2) No expenses spared
Hereditary peers, who descended from Britain’s landed gentry, aren’t likely to be short of a penny or two.
But that hasn’t stopped many of them claiming the flat rate attendance allowance of up to £361 a day simply for … showing up in parliament, regardless of whether they speak or vote.
A Sunday Times investigation found hereditary peers had cost the taxpayer almost £50 million since 2001, while the average hereditary had spoken just 50 times in the previous five years compared to 82 times for life peers (these ones are appointed, rather than getting a place by birth).
When they did speak, they were 60 percent more likely to mention their own personal or business interests, the paper found.
3) Bye bye by-elections
Whisper it, but hereditary peers are actually the most democratic part of the Lords — and it’s all because Labour never really finished the job last time it was in government.
Under Tony Blair, Labour removed nearly all of the hereditary peers. But, in a bid to get the plan through, a compromise was reached allowing 92 of them to stay on — they’d just have to scrap for it.
Now, when a vacancy arises among the 92 due to a death or retirement, a by-election is held to choose their replacement. The electorate is … pretty small. If a Conservative peer departs, only fellow Conservative hereditary peers can vote on their successor, although 15 of the peers are chosen by the whole House. Power to the people!
Candidates hoping to bag a seat in the Lords get to make a 75-word statement as part of their campaign. Given the small word count, the results have been … mixed.
One plucky peer-to-be provided a link to their own YouTube channel (which didn’t work). Another highlighted their time representing Ireland in “target shooting.” And one boasted that Stephen Sondheim invited them to his home to play a musical.
4) Relics of a bygone era
When you’re less progressive than the royal family, you might be in trouble.
In 2013, British law changed to end succession to the crown based on gender. It meant boys no longer had first dibs to the throne even if they were born after their sisters.
But the House of Lords never got with the times. While it’s been six decades since women were granted the right to sit in the House of Lords, just under a third of its current members are women.
The problem’s even more acute for the hereditaries. Labour’s 1999 reforms, which whittle down the numbers of hereditary peers, left just five female hereditaries in place — and the last one still in place after that, the aforementioned Countess of Mar, retired in 2020.
According to the House of Lords library, no women have been admitted to the House through the by-election process for picking new hereditary peers.
Despite calls to change the rules, no updates happened. So while Westminster may not exactly miss this one, it’s one heck of an historical holdout.
5) Big issue campaigners
Despite the immense privilege they enjoy, many hereditary peers have used their position to fly the flag for issues otherwise being ignored in Westminster.
Crossbench peer Charles Wellesley, the 9th Duke of Wellington, helped force the government to get tough with sewage-dumping water companies. The late Tory peer Anthony Hamilton-Smith, 3rd Baron Colwyn, championed the use of fluoride in water and banged the drum for better dental care. Margaret Alison of Mar (the goatscheese lady) became a champion for people with chronic fatigue syndrome after suffering from the condition herself.
While Labour’s massive majority means its plan to scrap the hereditaries is all-but-certain to succeed, plenty of the aristocratic lawmakers think the way the government’s gone about it has the whiff of class warfare — and could end up making the government’s wider plans to reform the House of Lords a whole lot harder.
Esther Webber contributed to this report.
