Member

Over many years, the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, introduced Bills to abolish the by-elections. Having spent a lifetime being elected, he wanted to spare the rest of us from being so. Fair enough, but the real reason so many of us objected to his Bills was in fact, as my noble friend Lord Howard explained so well, to preserve the Labour Party’s integrity when it came to the agreement struck, in 1998, of honour. However, 25 years has passed and we have a very blank sheet of paper when it comes to seeing what the future holds for this House—no ideas and no White Paper or anything else.