Harriet Harman, a former long-serving MP and minister recently elevated to the Lords, confirmed to POLITICO she would be tabling an amendment to remove the 26 places in the upper chamber currently reserved for Church of England bishops.
“There’s nobody who can justify, in 2024, people coming into our legislature in order to scrutinize legislation with their admission being based on ordination in the Church of England,” she said.
Some other Labour backbenchers want to see the body that approves appointments to the Lords put on a statutory footing, while Conservative peers are proposing that the end to hereditary peerages should be delayed to the next election.
At the same time, Conservatives in the Lords have been accused of obstructing government legislation while the threat of losing 46 of their number — who are hereditary peers — hangs over them.
Lords insiders highlighted that the government’s Football Governance Bill was being subjected to an extra-long committee stage of six days, usually reserved for major pieces of institutional or constitutional reform.
The same government official quoted above said it was “clearly an attempt by some opposition peers to talk long on a couple of other bills of late.”
One crossbench peer granted anonymity described it as “silly antics” but warned it could have a serious impact. “It’s an incredibly heavy legislative program, and here we are six months into the session, and we haven’t got to any of the meaty ones [bills] yet.”
The Conservative Party was contacted for comment.
