House of Lords Reform (No. 2) Bill

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Friday 28th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, I join the noble Lord, Lord MacGregor, on my own behalf and, if they will permit me, on behalf of my colleagues on these Benches, in saying how much we regret the departure of the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, and how much his speech today shows why we will regret it as much as we shall.

When one is hungry and lunch approaches, one can hope for a good, three-course meal and a glass of wine; or one can hope for a slimming salad; or, if things go awry, one can get perhaps two raisins and a nut. This Bill is, I fear, rather more two raisins and a nut than the sustaining meal that one would like to have. I have nothing against two raisins and a nut but I hope that they will be followed in due course by something more substantial. I very much hope that this Bill—for which we owe a huge amount, as others have said, to the tenacity of the noble Lord, Lord Steel—will be followed by a more substantive reform Bill, or Bills, over time.

I say that because after some seven and a half years in this House, I am convinced of its importance to our constitutional position as a revising Chamber able to hold the Government to account and as a House that wins respect nationally and internationally—not least in the European Union, for which respect the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, must take much credit—for the quality and objectivity of its work. That respect really matters to this House and to our constitution, and it must be retained. There must surely be a risk that if the House gets ever larger without reform, it will sooner or later topple over and the respect in which it is held will dissipate over time. That is extremely serious.

I therefore very much agree with the noble Lord, Lord Steel, and others that we need a proper reform Bill to follow this one—a Bill that will reduce the size of the House, end the election of hereditary Peers, and put the Appointments Commission on a statutory basis. I no longer chair the commission and am delighted that my noble friend Lord Kakkar does so, but I have believed and still believe that a commission that appoints people to this House or approves such appointments should be accountable to this House. The only way in which such a commission can be properly accountable to this House is for it to be established on a statutory basis. I am delighted that that proposal will come forward again in the next Session, in the Bill proposed by my noble friend Lady Hayman.

Meanwhile, we have this Bill, which I support. Its three main proposals are sensible and necessary—the ability to resign but not rescind resignation; enforced resignation following absence without good reason for a whole Session; and forced resignation after a serious criminal conviction. All are, as I say, sensible and necessary as a first step towards further reform of the House.

I have one concern, mentioned by the noble Lords, Lord MacGregor and Lord Steel. It has been suggested that Clause 4(5), which explicitly permits resignation from the Lords to be followed by standing for the Commons, could lead political parties to regard the Lords as a sort of training ground for the Commons, which would jeopardise this House’s principal role as a Chamber that revises and sometimes challenges the Commons, and therefore needs to keep its distance and separation from the Commons. It has been argued, previously and today, that those concerns are exaggerated, which may indeed be right. However, if the Bill were to have such an effect, the provision would indeed be serious for the role of this House and for our constitution.

I am glad that the Constitution Committee recognises that risk. It would go a long way to reassure those who hold those concerns if the Leader of the House and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, can say, as has been said in the Commons, that it is not their intention that the implementation of the Bill should harm the constitutional position of this House in that way, and that appropriate action would be taken if, none the less, that were to happen. My noble friend Lady Hayman, who cannot be here today, has asked me to say that she shares the hope that the Leader and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, will speak in that sense. That would reassure those of us who have some concerns here, and make both the raisins and nut at least more palatable—if not, in the longer term, sustaining.