Alex Burghart

Alex Burghart

Conservative — Brentwood and Ongar

Speaking in the House of Commons on 12 November 2024

Debate

House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill

Contribution

As ever, wisdom from the Deepings. The truth is that this will not make the upper House a better Chamber for scrutiny. All it will do is remove some of the Labour party’s opponents from that House. The Labour party promised in its manifesto that “The next Labour government will…bring about an immediate modernisation” of the Lords. The manifesto promised that that modernisation would consist of a mandatory retirement age of 80, a new participation requirement, a strengthening of “the circumstances in which disgraced members can be removed” from that House, reform of the appointments process, and improvement of “the national and regional balance of the second chamber.” Although we on the Conservative Benches might not agree with those proposals, the Labour party promised to introduce them immediately, but the only immediate modernisation being undertaken is to remove a group of hard-working and diligent peers, including 33 Cross Benchers and their Convenor, for the crime of not being Labour party placements.

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