House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) (Abolition of By-Elections) Bill [HL]
Debate between Lord Trefgarne and Lord Campbell-SavoursFriday 15th March 2019
(5 years, 8 months ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) (Abolition of By-Elections) Bill [HL] 2017-19 View all House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) (Abolition of By-Elections) Bill [HL] 2017-19 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: HL Bill 144-I(a) Amendment for Report, supplementary to the marshalled list (PDF) - (14 Mar 2019)
Lord Trefgarne
My Lords, I will speak for only a few moments. I support the amendment and very much hope that it will become part of this Bill if it reaches the statute book, which, naturally, I hope it will not. Just a few moments ago, the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, appeared to deploy what I believe he considers to be—
Lord Campbell-Savours
Will the noble Lord declare an interest so that those outside understand where he is coming from?
Lord Trefgarne
If it will satisfy the noble Lord, I am happy to declare that I am a hereditary Peer.
A few moments ago, the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, described what he sees as the principal shortcomings of the by-elections—namely, that there are very few voters and candidates for the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats as compared with the Conservatives. I hope he therefore agrees that, if the Bill does not become law, voting in by-elections should be done on an all-House basis, which I shall very much support.
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) (Abolition of By-Elections) Bill [HL]
Debate between Lord Trefgarne and Lord Campbell-Savours(6 years, 8 months ago)
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Lord Trefgarne
In this short intervention I support the proposition to which I referred earlier that the by-elections should be conducted on an all-House basis.
Lord Campbell-Savours
For the benefit of the public, will the noble Lord declare an interest?
Lord Trefgarne
My Lords, there are arrangements for declaring interests set out in Standing Orders. I do not think that what the noble Lord proposes is required by Standing Orders. If he would like to arrange for the Standing Orders to be changed, that, of course, would be another matter.
As I was saying, I believe there is a powerful argument for running all by-elections on an all-House basis, as those for the so-called officeholders are at present. Also, the list of candidates for hereditary Peer by-elections has, I think, only one female on it. I have a Private Member’s Bill waiting in the list behind the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, to change all that. I hope your Lordships will support it.