Let’s bring back hereditary peers

There is a new law of politics: if it happened under Tony Blair, it’s almost certainly bad. Brexit has certainly shown up the fallacies of New Labour’s constitutional reforms, in particular the creation of the Supreme Court, whose might was mistakenly thought to be symbolic. But one Blair era reform, which took place twenty years ago this week, has been largely overlooked: the decision to eject the majority of the hereditary peers from the House of Lords. It’s time to bring them back.

The key problem with the post-1999 Lords is that it introduced a system of unfettered patronage – the overwhelming majority of its members are there for life at the gift of the prime minister of the day. This allows for the continuation of the policies of a government long after it has left office, since invariably the upper chamber has been stuffed full of former MPs, party supporters and apparatchiks. The recent elevation to the Lords of Gavin Barwell – a failed MP and a failed government advisor – is just one example. 

We can’t say we weren’t warned.