Government Seeks to Abolish Hereditary Peers

The government has begun the process of removing all hereditary peers from the House of Lords by introducing a new bill which aims to finish the job started a quarter of a century ago by Sir Tony Blair. Abolishing the 92 remaining seats reserved for hereditary peers in the 805-member House of Lords was one of Labour’s manifesto commitments, with the bill forming part of the King’s Speech. While some officials have previously described the continued presence of hereditary peers in the Lords as “outdated and indefensible,” with reform “long overdue and essential,” Conservative critics have called the move a “vendetta” and “political vandalism.”...