Doomed hereditary peers spy chance to stay in the Lords

The end is nigh for hereditary peers, whose inherited right to sit in the House of Lords is set to be stripped from them after the passage of a new law this week.

“- Published The end is nigh for hereditary peers, whose inherited right to sit in the House of Lords is set to be stripped from them after the passage of a new law this week”

BBC

The 92 remaining hereditary seats will be scrapped when the current session of Parliament ends, which is expected to be in May.

BBC

But, for some, the end will be deferred after a compromise deal was struck that gives a select few a chance to board what one outgoing peer called the 'hereditary lifeboat'.

The Conservatives have been offered the opportunity to retain 15 of their hereditary members by converting them into life peers, allowing them to continue passing laws until they choose to retire.

Labour - which only has a handful of hereditary lords - has made the offer in return for the Conservatives agreeing to retire some of their existing life peers.

Some cross-bench hereditary peers - who are not affiliated with political parties - are expected to be saved too.

The prime minister has the ultimate say over who gets a seat in the Lords.

But before it gets to that stage, there will be a process to decide which hereditary members are put forward for nominations to remain in the house as life peers.

The Tory leadership in the Lords will make recommendations to party leader Kemi Badenoch, who will have the final call.

Charles Courtenay, the Earl of Devon, will certainly not be among them.

He told the BBC he doesn't think hereditary privilege should be used to haggle for life peerages, and that it's not appropriate.

BBC

Courtenay entered the Lords in 2018 after inheriting his late father's title, which was first given to a distant ancestor in 1142, almost 900 years ago.

Though he had - as he put it - 'defended the indefensible' by arguing against the removal of hereditary peers, the earl has accepted his fate and was not 'unduly distressed by it'.

'I'm quite conscious that if people think the hereditary principle is wrong and that's the decision of the country, then we shouldn't be using that to retain seats in the Lords for ourselves,' the earl said.

He's prepared to embrace the chop, as several of his forebears - who were beheaded for treason - did in centuries past.

While he won't be able to sit and vote in the Lords anymore, he and other outgoing hereditaries will still get to keep their titles.

'The one thing you look at from the family history is we've been through a lot,' Lord Courtenay said.

'There's nothing to be gained by fighting progress. We just have to crack on and move along.'

Lord Bethell, a Conservative health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic, has also announced his intention to leave the upper house.

'I will not seek a place in the 'Hereditary Lifeboat', and instead am looking forward, with enthusiasm and energy, to leaving the life of a parliamentarian in a couple of weeks to pursue new adventures,' Lord Bethell wrote in a LinkedIn post, external.

But in his absence, The Tories will not struggle to fill the survival raft.

One Lords source suggested Conservative hereditary members serving in shadow ministerial roles in the Lords would be the most likely candidates to be nominated for life peerages.

The hereditary peers on the Tory frontbench in the Lords include Viscount Camrose, Viscount Younger of Leckie, the Earl of Minto, Lord Keen of Elie, Earl Howe, the Earl of Courtown and the Earl of Effingham.

Lord Strathclyde, a former Tory leader of the Lords, has also been floated as a possible hereditary nominee.

Lord Salisbury, another hereditary peer and former Lords opposition leader who retired from the house in 2017, said 'a lot of people are upset about leaving and I understand that, particularly when they've given many years of service'.

'What I am pleased about is there will be a number of hereditary peers who will be given life peerages under a deal that has now been agreed with the present leader of the house,' he told the BBC's Today in Parliament programme.

'So people on the Tory benches like Lord Howe and Lord Strathclyde I hope would be able to continue to make a remarkable contribution, both of whom are an integral part of the present house.'

The BBC approached five Conservative hereditary peers and none were prepared to comment on the record.

One said matters were 'acutely sensitive at the present time', while another described the situation as 'a live issue'.

In the Lords, there is a widely held view that some hereditary peers have been effective legislators, more so than some members appointed by way of political patronage.

In his statement marking the abolition of hereditary peers, the Lord Speaker thanked them for their service.

'Whatever views people may have of this constitutional change, it is sad to say goodbye to friends, who in many cases have contributed significantly to debate and scrutiny and to our institutional memory,' Lord Forsyth of Drumlean said.

'Recognising their contribution is not about party politics but acknowledging the value of service and commitment, and I am proud to do so and to thank them.'

Labour's 2024 manifesto pledged to remove the right of all the remaining hereditary peers to 'sit and vote in the House of Lords'.

“- Published The end is nigh for hereditary peers, whose inherited right to sit in the House of Lords is set to be stripped from them after the passage of a new law this week”

BBC

Dr Jess Garland of the Electoral Reform Society said it would look farcical to the public if unelected peers could force a concession that watered down the manifesto.

The article notes historical reckonings: the 17th-century revolution, Blair's 1999 abolition attempt and the compromise that saved 92 hereditary peers.

It argues such dynamics create a pattern where hereditary peers may survive political cycles by leveraging institutional resilience.

The overall tone frames the issue as a contest between democratic reform and a resistant constitutional heritage.

Now, if the last remaining hereditary peers play their cards right, they could endure another Labour prime minister and delay their destiny to go the way of the dodo.