Tory Move to Banish Bishops From House of Lords Defeated

MPs have voted down a surprise attempt by a group of Conservative MPs to remove Church of England bishops from the House of Lords. The government is currently attempting to reform the Lords by removing all hereditary peers, but in an unexpected move, the Conservative former minister Sir Gavin Williamson attempted to add an amendment to Labour’s bill which would have also banished the bishops from the upper chamber. Williamson argued it is “fundamentally wrong … that because of the statute of 1847, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Winchester have a right to legislate on my constituents....