By Tony Grew - 19th May 2011
A legal expert has warned the government that their plans for reform of the House of Lords will face a "strong" legal challenge.
Baroness Deech, writing on the Lords of the Blog site, has warned that Nick Clegg's proposal to replace existing peers with an elected chamber will encounter "plenty of legal hurdles and complications".
On Tuesday the deputy prime minister told the Commons he envisages a slimmed down 300 member upper House elected by proportional representation for terms of 15 years.
A draft Bill provides for 240 elected and 60 appointed members, as well as 12 Church of England bishops sitting as ex-officio members.
Baroness Deech, a former tutorial fellow in law at St Anne's College Oxford, said the coalition government is planning "the removal of the existing peers and their replacement by political hacks".
"I shall argue at some point in the debates that the Parliament Acts, which enable the Commons to override the Lords if the latter resist the will of the former for too long, do not apply, on their construction, to the abolition or total overhaul of the Lords," she wrote.
"There are strong legal arguments to this effect, sufficient to enable lawyers to mount a challenge to any Act that purported to remove the existing peers and revamp the House to such an extent that it is no longer the House it has been for centuries.
"If that argument were to fail, then the next line of argument is that the existing Parliament Acts could not continue as they are.
"It would no longer be 'democratic' to give the Commons supremacy over the Lords in the enactment of legislation, for both Houses would be equally mandated to govern."
Baroness Deech's comments echo the concerns of some Conservative MPs about the Clegg plan.
In the Commons on Tuesday Conor Burns received vocal support from Tory colleagues when he said: "It is the view of many on the government benches that we did not come to this place to vote for measures that will undermine the democratic supremacy and legitimacy of this House."
Burns, MP for Bournemouth West, called for a free vote on Lords reform.
His Tory colleague Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) went further, describing the plans as "yet another tatty roadshow brought to us by the same people who thought that the British people wanted the alternative vote".
Clegg told Conservative MPs that Lords reform is government business and they will be expected to vote in favour of it.
Article Comments
The sooner 100% democracy is brought to this outdated institution the better. 'Strong legal challenge' Bring it on. The will of the people must prevail, for good or ill, and to have the Lords founded on privilage, birth, or patronage is absolutely ridiculous.
Even with 12 bishops in the Lords it will remain a bizarre hangover. Must be the laughing stock of Europe. A wholly elected senate is long overdue, and takes Britain into the 21st century.
Time for change.
Eugene Kaufmann
20th May 2011 at 10:36 am
I have been in public life serving my community in different roles for over thirty years and whilst I hold a party card to dismiss people like me as 'political hacks' is prejudiced and offensive. If Ruth Deech wants to continue to contribute her many talents to the new Senate let stand for election as an independent. I might give her my vote.
Kevin McElduff
20th May 2011 at 9:08 am
'There are strong legal arguments to this effect, sufficient to enable lawyers to mount a challenge to any Act that purported to remove the existing peers and revamp the House to such an extent that it is no longer the House it has been for centuries.'
Perhaps the Baroness could tell us which of her ancestors were in the House during those centuries, given that she was only installed as a life peer in 2005, and that only by virtue of previous Acts which have radically changed the composition of the House?
If she wants to make laws for the people she could try getting herself elected by the people, or would that be beneath her new found dignity?
Denis Cooper
19th May 2011 at 1:24 pm
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