Theresa May backs bid to cut size of House of Lords - as she prepares to appoint new Tory peers
3 min read
Theresa May has called on opposition parties to "encourage" some of their peers to retire in a bid to reduce the overall size of the House of Lords.
The Prime Minister also announced she will scrap the current convention which sees senior judges, police officers and politicians automatically offered a peerage when they retire from their jobs.
However, Mrs May is still set to proceed with plans to appoint up to 10 new Conservative peers within weeks, taking the total number to more than 800.
Last October, the Burns Report recommended reducing the size of the Lords size to 600 by adding one new peer for every two who have died or retired over a set period.
In a letter to Lord Fowler, the leader of the House of Lords, Mrs May said she backed the plan to cut the number of peers - but said other parties also had to play their part.
She said the number of lords had reduced by 20 since she entered Downing Street and was "keen to maintain that trajectory".
A total of 11 Tory peers have retired since Mrs May became Prime Minister, compared to four from Labour, three Lib Dems, one DUP and nine crossbenchers.
She said: "I intend to continue with the restraint which I have exercised to date and, when making appointments, to allocate them fairly, bearing in mind the results of the last general election and the leadership shown by each party in terms of retirements.
"I will also operate on the basis that there is no automatic entitlement to a peerage for any holder of high office in public life."
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: "Other parties, if they're serious about reducing the size of the Lords, should do more to encourage retirements."
Jeremy Corbyn is expected to appoint two or three new peers shortly, but a Labour spokesman said: "With this Conservative government everything seems to be put off to some uncertain time in the future – Lords reform included.
"As well as ending the hereditary principle for good, we ultimately want to see an elected second chamber but Theresa May has ducked giving a proper response."
Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: "There is a blatant contradiction in what the Prime Minister has said today. While we welcome her stated intention to reduce the size of the House of Lords, in reality she is merely paying lip service to the issue.
"Calling on parties to encourage their peers to resign is not enough – in fact it misses the point.
"The most effective way to shrink the second chamber is to move to a slimmed-down, fairly-elected chamber. Voters are tired of unaccountable Lords making laws on their behalf. "
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