House of Lords: Appointments

Lord Grocott Excerpts

Wednesday 18th May 2022 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Grocott]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have, if any, to reform the current system of appointments to the House of Lords.

[The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Lord True) (Con)]

My Lords, there are no plans to make changes to the current system of appointments.

[Lord Grocott (Lab)]

My Lords, on Monday, at Questions, the Minister gave a clear indication that there might be. He said that because of the number of government defeats in the Lords there might well be some more Tory Peers on the way, even more than at present. Can he confirm at least the facts, which are as follows: that the number of Tory Peers today as a proportion of the whole House is 33%, which is far higher than when the last Labour Government were in power, and that the Government now have an absolute majority of the political parties over Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined, something we could only dream about when a Labour Government were in power? So if despite all these advantages that this Tory Government have got the Prime Minister is worrying about losing votes, is it not clear that the problem is not the shortage of Tory Peers but a Government who simply cannot get their act together?

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, there are a lot of questions there. The original Question, which I answered, was whether there are plans to reform the current system of appointments to this House, and I repeat that there are not. So far as numbers are concerned, I did not notice the noble Lord being reticent when he was advising Mr Tony Blair on appointing Labour Peers.