Tory hereditary peers accused of delaying government bills to save themselves

Changes to improve the lives of workers are being held up by hereditary peers fighting to save their own skin, it has been claimed.

Labour had pledged to abolish the 92 hereditary peers in their party manifesto, but are now said to be facing constant “shenanigans” that are causing delays to other legislation. A bill to scrap them has seen more than 100 amendments put forward, two of them longer than the actual bill to remove the peers.

Most of these had to be debated individually, and came largely from Conservative peers, hoping to hold up the government's legislative programme, and push Downing Street into making a deal. This has seen the planning and infrastructure bill stuck in committee since July, while plans to ban the sale of tobacco to people born on or after 1 January 2009 has also stalled.

Labour peer George Foulkes claimed attempts to prevent the abolishment of hereditary peers were “outrageous”. He told the Mirror: “They are putting the concerns for trying to keep hereditary peers above everything else that we are dealing with, and using every tactic they can to try and get some kind of concession on it. They’d like to defeat it, but failing that, they’d like to delay it. It is distorting the entire proceedings of the Lords.

"For them, it’s more important than any other legislation, such as improving workers rights, tenants rights, or other things, they all pale in significance compared to this. They are putting their personal interests above everything else, and the ones who are leading it are the hereditary peers themselves.”

Darren Hughes Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society said: “The government was elected on a legitimate manifesto that commits to abolishing the hereditary peerage. The idea that it is being held to ransom by unelected peers in the bloated second chamber to get their way is preposterous.

“As the second-largest legislative Chamber in the world, these alleged petty measures by those with a job for life prove the need not only for the removal of the hereditary peers but also for further reforms to the House. Those shaping our laws should be chosen by and accountable to the British people who live under those laws.”

Responding, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said: “It is the role of the House of Lords to scrutinise legislation and propose improvements – even if the Government of the day finds that a nuisance.

"It is the Government who have chosen to prioritise a Bill about membership of the House of Lords when there are so many other pressing issues facing our nation. We accept the Government’s manifesto pledge to end the continuation of the hereditary principle as a route of entry to the House of Lords, but we do not accept the Government removing active parliamentarians for political advantage."