House of Lords: Reform

Lord Steel of Aikwood Excerpts

Tuesday 21st June 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Steel of Aikwood]

My Lords, if I were to spend my eight minutes talking about the proposals in my Bill, to which frequent reference has been made, I would be guilty of tedious repetition before I got halfway through my first sentence. I do not propose to do that. However, I thank the Leader of the House for the kind words he said about my Bill. He said that all the four proposals were included in the Government’s plans—so that is all right then. The difference between us is that his plans are for the years 2015 to 2025; the proposals in my Bill are for this Session, here and now. I repeat the offer I have made frequently that my Bill is not appropriate for private Member’s legislation; the Government should take it over—it is ready to go into Committee—and get on with these immediate reforms.

I am strengthened in that view by the seventh report of the House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee. I do not have time to read it all out but it states that,

“those proposing radical reform need also to address other incremental, urgent reforms that would improve the functioning of the existing House of Lords”.

It went on to talk about the effective functioning of the House and said:

“This is a pressing issue that cannot wait four years to be resolved”.

I rest my case and I hope that the Government will do that.

On the present White Paper, I have a strong view that there are two intellectually credible solutions to the future of this place which could be advanced. One is its total abolition and to have a unicameral House; that can be perfectly logically argued. The other is to have a small elected second Chamber with full powers, rather like in the United States. That, too, can be intellectually advanced. When my noble friend Lord Ashdown was working himself into a lather a few minutes ago on this issue, that is what he was arguing for—a House that could say, “No, we do not go to war”. That is not in the White Paper; it is not what is before us.

What is before us, I am afraid, is something of a dog’s breakfast. All the previous reforms of the House of Lords—1911, 1949, 1958 and 1999—have tilted the balance away from the House of Lords towards the House of Commons. The difference with this one is that it tilts it the other way; for the first time we are going to have a House which will be elected and therefore will attract more power to itself.

The White Paper is very interesting on this subject. In paragraph 7 it states:

“The Government believes that the change in composition of the second chamber ought not to change … the existing constitutional relationship between the two Houses of Parliament”.

It says, “ought not”, but we know from our own Cunningham committee, which has been approved by both Houses of Parliament, that that is simply not true. They have already said that if an elected House came into being the conventions between the two Houses would have to be completely rewritten. So that statement in the White Paper is simply wrong— both Houses have already agreed that it is wrong—and I do not see how it can still be maintained in that way.

Two other points occur in the White Paper. First, there is the suggestion that 20 per cent should not be elected but appointed. That is almost an admission that we will miss something if we have an elected Chamber—namely, the expertise that we have, particularly on the Cross Benches, in this House. A hybrid House of that kind is very dubious.

Secondly, the dreaded list system has reappeared as a possible option. That is a terrible thought when combined with the 15-year term of office and, of course, the cost of replacing this House with an elected Chamber. I say to my noble friend that going to the country and saying, “We have reconnected with you; we have got rid of the House of Lords and instead we have got an expensive elected Chamber of party political professionals—are you grateful?” would meet with a deafening silence.

There is only one basis on which the argument for the White Paper rests. As my noble friend Lord Tyler said, it is a simple principle and I shall quote him. I am grateful to him for helping me to find this quotation from him—which I am now going to attack. He said in an article in the Guardian:

“Legislators should be elected by the people whose lives they affect”.

That is the simple principle upon which the whole of the White Paper is based. As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Howe, has already said, it is not based on the fact that it is going to be better or anything like that; it is based only on the fact that we are not elected. My noble friend Lord Marks spoke eloquently to that principle.

My noble friend Lord Tyler went on to say:

“Everyone seems rightly determined that this should hold true in North Africa and the Middle East, yet so many are willing to eschew it for our own Parliament”

With no power over the finance of the nation, with limited scrutiny powers and only able to ask the House of Commons to think again on some issues—as we did with the previous Government on civil liberty issues and as we have done in this Parliament on health matters—to suggest that this House is somehow comparable in evil with single-party elected states with military apparatus and security services is simply fanciful nonsense.

We must distinguish between power and influence—this House has no power, since any revision we make can be undone by the other place, but we have influence. That is why it is perfectly acceptable to have a House that is dealing with influence and not power that is not necessarily elected. My main concern is not that this Bill may get through—it is the opposite, that it will not get through but will gum up the works of the coalition Government when they should be concentrating on getting the economy back on its right footing.