House of Lords Bill [HL]

My Lords, such is the strength of the views of this House as expressed today that I believe we must support the Bill. By doing so, we would do much to mirror the Labour Party’s manifesto commitment, which the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, pointed out: a belief that a reformed upper Chamber must be effective and more representative without challenging the primacy of the other place. I am already beginning to feel sorry for the Minister who is to reply to the debate. It reminds me very much of doing my national service and taking part in the passing-out parade, when my mother turned to another member of my family and said, ““Look at them, they are all out of step but my Tom””. A broadly based statutory Appointments Commission, preventing the possibility of another cash-for-peerages scandal, would ensure at a stroke for the Government a Chamber that, although not representative of the British people through the ballot box, was nevertheless representative of the British people in many important respects. I suggest that there is no real appetite for a massive change in the way that the House exists. I have asked many of my colleagues in the other place how many letters they have received from constituents regarding reform of the House of Lords, and not one had received any. I certainly have had no such representations and I suggest that no one in your Lordships’ House has either. With the eventual ending of hereditary peerages and the introduction of the Appointments Commission, we would stand to benefit from a system which, by its very nature, would be an expert revising Chamber and an appropriate check on the Government of the day. The Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, said at a recent Select Committee hearing that there is a real feeling in the country for change. I think he is simply wrong about that. There is no such feeling. As your Lordships know, it is difficult enough to get people to vote at local and regional elections without expecting them to turn out for yet another additional costly tier of government, which would be the case. I believe that the best interests not only of this House but also of the other place and certainly of the nation would be served if this Bill were supported today.