A thank you to the hereditary peers who retire from the House of Lords today

I have stood for election in the past on a Conservative manifesto which included replacing the House of Lords with an elected second chamber.

That would have been a genuinely democratic reform, but every attempt over decades if not centuries to do something of the kind was defeated by an unholy alliance of those who wanted no change, those who wanted a different kind of reform, and those MPs who don't want the check on their power represented by any second chamber at all.

Instead we have had, from two Labour governments, so-called "reforms" which replaced one unelected chamber with a slightly different unelected chamber from which it was easier for them to get what they wanted.

Don 't let anyone imagine that the removal of the years of experience and service represented by the remaining hereditary peers who step down today will improve the ability of the House of Lords to perform its' functions.

If the Starmer administration had really been interested in real democratic reform they would have started the process of consultation and discussion to seek consensus on the orderly transition from our present system to one with an elected senate as a second chamber.

This is not about reform, it is about increasing the power of Labour governments and throwing some red meat to their supporters with what will sound to them like a more democratic change but actually makes the second chamber less experienced, and less independent.

Even if you think that there should be no place for hereditary peers in our government, it is possible to still be grateful for the years of public service put in by the peers who are retiring from the Lords today because the Labour government has removed them. And I think we should say thank you to them for their service.

As Kemi Badenoch said today,

"In the midst of all the news today, and with Parliament prorogued, many people may not have noticed that this was the final time the hereditary peers sat in Parliament before being forced out by Labour.

 
I want to pay an extra special tribute to them.

Combined they had 1784 years of parliamentary experience, wisdom and service to this country. That is not something easily replaced, and it should not be casually discarded.

Most were Conservatives. All were public servants.

They have brought to public life judgment shaped over decades, deep expertise, institutional memory, and a sense of duty that has strengthened Parliament and, very often, improved legislation in ways the public will never fully see.

Their record speaks for itself. They have served in war and peace, in government and opposition, in defence, diplomacy, farming, business, science and public service. They have not merely occupied seats in the Lords, they have contributed to the life of the nation.

That is why what has happened matters. Hereditary peers are a living part of Britain’s constitutional inheritance that Labour is casually tearing up.

Labour has rubbed away another part of our heritage, not to strengthen Parliament but to replace it with political appointees, four of whom it has already had to suspend the whip from because they were so inappropriate. That contrast says rather a lot.

At a time when public trust in politics is fragile, I think it is worth saying plainly that experience, seriousness and tradition still matter. Service still matters. Duty still matters.

So today, as an era closes, I want to put on record my profound gratitude and admiration for our hereditary peers. Britain has been better governed because of them. The Conservative Party has been stronger because of them. And Parliament will be poorer without them.

Their contribution will long outlast the petty politics that has brought this moment about."