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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Time to Abolish the Bloated House of Lords

  • Submitted by: Kenneth Gibson, Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party.
  • Date lodged: Thursday, 06 August 2020
  • Motion reference: S5M-22374

That the Parliament notes that, despite the Conservative Party's 2019 General Election manifesto commitment of "addressing the size of the House of Lords”, the Prime Minister has overseen the appointment of 36 more people for a seat in this unelected institution, taking its membership to well over 800, including 26 Church of England bishops; recognises that the unelected peers recently received a 3.1% pay rise, taking their daily tax free attendance allowance to £323 for merely entering the building to “undertake parliamentary work”; understands that some of the highly controversial appointments to the unelected House of Lords this time include the Prime Minister’s brother, Jo Johnson, the former of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, the Russian newspaper magnate, Evgeny Lebedev, and former Labour MP Katy Clark, a one-time member of the Labour Socialist Campaign Group, which supposedly sought abolition of the Lords; acknowledges that there are 92 hereditary peers, the rest being  appointed for life; highlights that the cost of running the House of Lords over 2018-19 was at least £117.4 million and that, according to an analysis of average claims by the Electoral Reform Society (ERS), the 36 newly-appointed peers will add an extra £1.1 million in allowances alone; notes that, according to ERS, 37% of the House of Lords consists of former politicians, their staff and activists, allowing them to make laws affecting everyone living in Scotland, despite what it sees as their often repeated and emphatic rejection by the electorate, creating a backdoor route to power, and believes that the House of Lords and the way it is being used does not serve democracy and that it should be abolished altogether.


Supported by: Colin Beattie, Christine Grahame, Richard Lyle, Gillian Martin, John Mason, Mark McDonald, Gil Paterson, Sandra White