Hereditary aristocrats lose their seats in the House of Lords
UK ends centuries-old tradition of hereditary nobles in the House of Lords
A centuries-old British tradition is coming to an end this spring. The British Parliament voted last week to remove hereditary nobles from the House of Lords, meaning aristocrats will no longer inherit their way to the governing body.
Dukes and earls will not be seated by right of birth in Parliament’s upper chamber.
The change has been a long time coming, said Edmund Neill, associate professor in modern history at Northeastern University London.
Parliament has been chipping away at the 700-year-old tradition for decades, first removing the right of hereditary peers to sit in the chamber in 1999. That move reduced the number of lords who inherited their seats from 700 to 92. Now the last of these positions will be removed.
In a question and answer session with Northeastern Global News, Neill explained the role and makeup of the House of Lords, efforts to democratize the body, and the relatively recent admission of women.
The answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
First of all, what is a lord?
The lords in the upper house traditionally were made up of hereditary peers, some of whom would have traced their lineage back to the 11th-century Norman Conquest [of England by Norman, French, Flemish, and Breton forces.] They had land, they inherited their titles. They might be a baron, an earl, a viscount, marquess or even a duke.
We’re coming to the end of that now. Tony Blair’s government in 1999 basically wanted to get rid of all the hereditary peers. But there was a bit of a compromise because the conservatives were very unkeen on it. So there were still 92 remaining. What they’re doing now is getting rid of those as well.
What is the House of Lords?
Parliament has an upper house, the unelected House of Lords, and a lower house, the elected House of Commons.
It’s not like the U.S. system with the House and the Senate. The House of Lords is not an equal branch. It’s meant to be a revising chamber. The lords can vote against legislation, but they can only delay it for a year. They can’t stop it. Ultimately, the Commons can cite the Parliament Act and pass the legislation.
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Who has replaced hereditary peers?
For more than 25 years, the House of Lords has been largely an appointed body. The members are called life peers and are appointed by the [reigning monarch] on the advice of the Prime Minister.
Maybe they have a prestigious job or received an honor. The famous composer Benjamin Britten got a life peerage before the end of his life. You could be a really good athlete and suddenly get appointed to the House of Lords. Members could also be ‘working peers’ representing a political party or area of expertise.
Do life peers have titles?
Yes, but they are not hereditary. When they die, they don’t pass their peerage on to anybody else.
The standard life peer title would be Baron Somebody of Somewhere. When Margaret Thatcher took a seat in the House of Lords after she left the House of Commons, she was known as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.
When did women join the House of Lords?
In 1958, when the House of Lords started admitting life peers. Before that, there were no women at all.
Is the House of Lords traditionally more conservative than the House of Commons?
It’s not nearly as conservative as it used to be. Members of the House of Lords tend to be older and more seasoned. Some of their attitudes may be more like your parents than your children. That has advantages and disadvantages.
Sometimes they surprise you. When gay marriage legislation passed in 2013, the majority in the House of Lords that was in favor of it was actually bigger than in the House of Commons.
I remember standing outside the Parliament when it passed. Quite a number of people who’d been conservative ministers in the 1980s and were then members of the House of Lords had changed their minds and voted for it.
Nobles are out, but bishops remain in the House of Lords. Why is that?
We have these weird anachronisms. We have the Church of England, and we’ve still got quite a lot of bishops in the House of Lords, more than 20. There have been talks about reducing their numbers [but] when it comes to grand reform of the House of Lords, it never happens. What you tend to have are these piecemeal reforms.
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