House of Lords

  • Hereditary peers
  • Nominated life peers
  • Peers nominated for donating to parties
    • Lord Marks of Hale donated £119,500 to the Tories and was nominated by Rishi Sunak
    • Lord Alli donated ~£700k to Labour

Crossbench peers

  • 180 crossbench peers (~22%)
  • Non-partisan
  • Very good at scrutiny in the committee stage

Successful reform

Unsuccessful reform

Blair (Lab)

  • Wakeman Report 2000
    • Proposed that majority of peers are appointed
    • 20% recommended by independent appointments body
    • 12%-35% elected under PR
    • Remaining hereditary peers to be removed
  • Whitepaper 2001
    • Proposal to elect 20% of peers
  • Feb 2003: free vote in Parliament on 7 options to reform HoL
    • MPs did not agree on consensus
    • Lords voted for a fully appointed house
  • Whitepaper 2003
    • Proposalfor wholly appointed house
    • Heavily criticised
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