In defence of hereditary peers

‘Hereditary peers remain indefensible,’ says Labour’s manifesto. The party plans to rectify this issue by ‘introducing legislation to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords’. If it follows through on its promise, Keir Starmer’s party will be making a big mistake.

Labour suggests that its reform will make the Lords a fairer and more ‘modern’ place. But what Starmer is essentially advocating is a chamber that is Prime Minister-appointed (save for the Bishops who it seems would, at least for now, remain). The hereditary peers provide a necessary counterbalance to a patronage-based system; their existence is one of the checks and balances in place to prevent abuses of power, and they are an essential cog in the complex machine of the British constitution. Their departure would bring this to an end.

At present, it is within the PM’s power to hand a seat in the Lords to personal friends, loyal individuals or those who have donated large sums to the party of government, without particular regard for the qualifications the individuals would bring.