Betty Boothroyd, who became the first female Speaker of the House of Commons, and later, a Baroness, was going to use her valedictory speech to call for the abolition of hereditary peerages and reform of the Upper House, which now has an “absurd” 800 members, too many of them prime ministers’ cronies and party donors with “fat bank accounts”.
Boothroyd died last February, before she could speak the words. The transcript has just been published by Sir Nicholas Bevan, her former secretary.
For several years, I’d been with those advocating the abolition of the House of Lords, which has steadily become more disreputable. I began to question this fixed view, when, like many other Britons, I witnessed Labour’s cowardice and capitulation in the House of Commons as Brexiteers manipulated the population and got a mandate to commit an act of national self-harm.
Conscientious, pro-EU peers who tried to stop that included Conservatives – Lords Willets, Patten, Deben and Tugendhat – Labour’s Baroness Thornton and Lord Kinnock, and all Lib Dem appointees. Their knowledge and persistence was awesome.
In these turbulent times, in spite of being trashed by right-wing papers and pundits, peers have fought valiantly against Tory wars on the poor, human rights institutions and on migrants. As I write this, they are embarking on a proper scrutiny of Rishi Sunak’s hurriedly assembled, questionable Rwanda bill.
So here is a big U-turn. I no longer support an elected second chamber and have come to believe the institution is an essential bulwark against the whims and tyrannies of parties which pander to emotive, demanding voters instead of governing judiciously for the good of the whole nation. However, I also feel strongly, as the late Boothroyd did, that the House, in its present state, is indefensible.
For a change, I can’t simply blame past and present Tories for the rot. Tony Blair, as soon as he dashed into 10 Downing Street, started handing out peerages to his backers with abandon.
In 2004, he handed Paul Drayson a peerage. Drayson was a New Labour donor, and six weeks after being made a peer, he donated a further £505,000. His firm PowderJect had made a fortune supplying smallpox inoculations to the Government in 2001. According to news reports, Lord Drayson donated £50,000 to the Labour Party while the contract process was ongoing.
Over his years as PM, there were so many accusations of preferments that “Tony’s Cronies” became a joke, only no one was really laughing.
David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, we know, stuffed the House with friends and allies. In 2020, the Financial Times revealed that within the previous 13 years, 22 wealthy party donors were put into the Lords, a job for life.
In 2022, Sir Simon Jenkins opined scathingly in a Guardian column about the club of the great, the good and not good at all: “Not one living prime minister has deigned to darken its door. They know too much of its deals, kickbacks and cronyism to be reminded of them round every corner.
“Yes, there are impressive peers, but they are captives of a roughly 800-member club that has become the laughing stock of British democracy.” He added that allegations such as those against Michelle Mone, a Conservative peer, were “all too common”.
Spoke too soon, Sir Simon. Cameron is now a Lord and in charge of foreign policy, mingling, I imagine, with many of the undeserving.
In 2021, the website openDemocracy identified 54 financial interests from 42 peers that may be in breach of the rules on transparency. They are unanswerable, untouchable. This cannot go on.
All nominations should be scrutinised by an independent body which bites not with weak gums but real teeth. We also need a new mechanism to throw out wronguns. Forever. Only after the Lords has been thoroughly cleaned up, will good and honourable peers be able to carry out their duties. Additionally, let’s do the same with the honours system, because it, too, is open to corruption and favouritism.
I was wrong about the House of Lords
7
1
30.01.2024
Betty Boothroyd, who became the first female Speaker of the House of Commons, and later, a Baroness, was going to use her valedictory speech to call for the abolition of hereditary peerages and reform of the Upper House, which now has an “absurd” 800 members, too many of them prime ministers’ cronies and party donors with “fat bank accounts”.
Boothroyd died last February, before she could speak the words. The transcript has just been published by Sir Nicholas Bevan, her former secretary.
For several years, I’d been with those advocating the abolition of the House of Lords, which has steadily become more disreputable. I began to question this fixed view, when, like many other Britons, I witnessed Labour’s cowardice and capitulation in the House of Commons as Brexiteers manipulated the population and got a mandate to commit an act of national self-harm.
Conscientious, pro-EU peers who tried to stop that included Conservatives – Lords Willets, Patten, Deben and Tugendhat – Labour’s........
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