Sir Oliver Dowden

Sir Oliver Dowden

Conservative — Hertsmere

Speaking in the House of Commons on 15 October 2024

Debate

House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill

Contribution

The purpose of the 1999 compromise was to ensure that we did not remove hereditary peers without considering the wider consequences. That is precisely my concern with the approach being pursued by the Government. This meagre Bill is not motivated by considered and enlightened principle. Labour wants to remove the independent and experienced voices of excepted peers so that it can parachute in a wave of new Labour cronies. It is change in the name of an Executive power grab, not change to serve the British people. The excepted peers are immune from the needs of political patronage. They work in the public interest for the good of the nation. Edmund Burke once described them as “the great Oaks that shade a Country”. The same, I am afraid, cannot be said of the saplings of the new Labour intake.

More from Sir Oliver Dowden

Other recent Hansard contributions by the same speaker.

About Hansard

Hansard is the official verbatim record of proceedings in the UK Parliament. Every word spoken in the Commons and Lords is recorded and published — this page is a single contribution from that record.

For Sir Oliver Dowden's full parliamentary record including voting history, expenses and all other contributions, see the Sir Oliver Dowden report card.