UK Parliament / Open data

House of Lords Reform Bill

Proceeding contribution from Tristram Hunt (Labour) in the House of Commons on Monday, 9 July 2012. It occurred during Debate on bills on House of Lords Reform Bill.

I should declare an interest. My father sits in the House of Lords, as do the fathers of other Labour Members of Parliament. He, too, is in favour of reform of the House of Lords, and in favour of democracy in relation to it.

The tide of time is in favour of democracy. Many in the Chamber might find that an uncomfortable reality, but we cannot go around the world preaching democracy to developing and other nations without having that in the second Chamber. I entirely accept that legislative wisdom comes in many forms, and I acknowledge the expertise in the unelected second Chamber, as the hon. Member for Gosport suggested. That is why I am in favour of an 80% elected, 20% appointed upper House. My perfect model would be 75% elected, 25% appointed because when one drills down into the absolute expertise in the upper House, one would probably get to about 25%.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
548 c85 
Session
2012-13
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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