The Earl of Caithness (Con)

My Lords, I have long supported the abolition of the right of hereditary Peers to sit in your Lordships’ House. I have said it in the House before and I meant it. There were two reasons why I did not like the legislation previously brought forward. The first is that they were Private Members’ Bills. A reform of this nature should be a government Bill, and it is quite right that the Government have got their way on it. The second reason is that I am disappointed that we hereditaries have failed in one respect. In 1999, the then Lord Chancellor the noble and learned Lord, Lord Irvine of Lairg, said to me, “One of the reasons we’ve kept you is to ensure that the Labour Party fulfil their manifesto commitment to reform the House of Lords”. Well, we know that that manifesto commitment was not fulfilled, and it must have been quite hard for some noble Lords to have taken part in and listened to some of the excellent speeches and debates we have had on the Bill. I mention just two: my noble friends Lady Mobarik and Lord Shinkwin, who gave speeches about prejudice at Second Reading. I thank noble Lords opposite for their kind words to me about how sad they will be to see the hereditaries go. I enjoyed those conversations until they petered out when I said, “Well, you could have done something about it”. I should also thank the noble Lords opposite, particularly the influx of Labour Peers who came here in 1999. When I first took my seat here, I could claim a maximum daily allowance of £4.73, which is worth £105.14 in today’s money. In 2000-01, after numerous attempts to improve our expenses, they suddenly increased hugely. Our maximum daily claimable allowance went up 50% within a year, and the amount that we could claim—we cannot anymore—for our office, secretarial and research costs for non-sitting days nearly doubled. That was a bonus for me. Like many Peers who took their seat on their Front Bench, I took a substantial reduction in my salary, so the increase in expenses was welcome. I am extremely grateful to the Labour Peers who enabled that.