POLITICS
Labour bids to reform parliament
October 21, 2024 - Britain’s Labour government has approved its House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill to strip hereditary aristocrats of the right to sit and vote in the House of Lords after more than 700 years.
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Britain’s Parliament has two chambers: the House of Commons, whose members are directly elected by voters, and the unelected Lords.
In the commons, Labour’s paymaster general, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said the proposal to remove hereditary peers from the House of Lords is “long overdue.”
“There should not be places in our parliament making our laws reserved for those who are born into certain families.”
Hereditary peers hold titles such as Dukes, Earls, Viscounts and Barons.
Since the 11th century, they have been made up of men -- women were not allowed until 1963 -- whose voting rights and titles were passed down to their children.
There are 814 hereditary peers, although only 92 sit in the Lords at any time since the House of Lords Act of 1999.
Peers do not get a salary but can claim £361 (€434, $472) daily expenses. The Lords is the second largest secondary chamber in the world, only behind China’s National People’s Congress.
The chamber acts as a revising body that examines and scrutinises non-financial bills, public policy and the government in power.