Leon Neal/PA
The end of hereditary peers has moved a step closer after a draft law that would remove them from the House of Lords passed to its next stage.
There are currently 92 seats for hereditary peers who have inherited their titles from their families, but those look set to be scrapped after Labour made a commitment in its general election manifesto.
Introducing the bill on its second outing, Constitutional Affairs Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said it was a change that was “long overdue”.
“It isn’t right that what was a temporary arrangement in 1999 should last any longer,” the minister said.
He said it was “indefeasible for people to sit in our legislature as an act of birth” and it was “important that our second chamber represents modern Britain”.
That didn’t go far enough for SNP MP Pete Wishart though.
Invoking the spirit of 1649, Wishart asked whether Labour would abolish the Lords altogether, which the SNP is calling for.
Wishart: “What we have down there is an embarrassment and an unreformable laughing stock, a plaything of prime ministers and the personification of a dying establishment that represents another age.
“That is why I am so proud that my party will never put anybody in that red leather-upholstered, gold-plated Narnia.”
Thomas-Symonds said: “The [Labour] manifesto sets out that we should have an alternative second chamber that’s more representative of the nations and regions.”
Meanwhile, on Jeremy Vine, Jemma Forte backed the plans to rid the house of hereditary peers, saying:
“Why should anyone, just because they’ve been born, be entitled to a big lunch and £342 a day?”
Watch the clip in full below:
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