Member

The Government coming clean on the timing and nature of their future plans for the House after this Bill is a necessary component of confidence building. But it is not, as I presently see it, a prior requirement to agree a package along the lines that I propose: acceptance of the ending of the hereditary principle as a route into Parliament; a stay to the enforced expulsion of a whole group of our colleagues; some voluntary retirements, and potentially other measures, to address concern about numbers; and reinforcement of conventions by agreed undertakings given at these Dispatch Boxes on the Floor of the House, to give every Government confidence that their measures will not be unreasonably delayed. This is a package which could bring peace and benefit to your Lordships’ House, and avoid rancour which would last far beyond this Session. I have my party’s authority to negotiate this and to deliver it, and we should seek to do so before Report, at the very least to dispel the doubts in the minds of colleagues facing expulsion. That is the human thing to do.