Radical Lords shake-up mooted
Membership of the House of Lords will be reduced by about a third and more peerages for women and ethnic minorities will be created, under government plans.
The proposals are among a number unveiled in a report leaked by leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw.
Under the blueprint’s recommendations, life peerages would be permanently abolished, and the upper house would be split evenly between elected and appointed lords.
The report recommends reducing membership in the Lords from 741 to 450 and scrapping attending allowances. It also calls for peers to be paid salaries for their new full-time responsibilities.
In addition, peers would not be allowed to serve for more than three parliamentary terms.
Today’s measures are expected to cost an additional £13 million every year, the Sunday Times reports.
“The Lords reform logjam is breaking up. You can really feel the earth move when even Jack Straw, a hardcore constitutional conservative, is backing a 50 per cent elected House of Lords. This must be the best chance of reform for a century,” a Liberal Democrat peer told the newspaper.
The 18-page memo is scheduled to form the basis of a government white paper next month, but a spokesman insisted the report did not represent Mr Straw’s “final position”.
No party would be permitted an overall majority in the House of Lords according to today’s document, regardless of their position in the Commons.
The report also outlines peerage quotas for women, people from ethnic minorities and under-represented regions of Britain.
