Out with the Hereditary Peers — or most of them: The 1999 House of Lords Act and Beyond

Abstract

Having been chastened by its traumatic experience in attempting to reform the House of Lords during 1968–9, the Labour Party was understandably cautious about returning to the issue so soon afterwards. The Conservatives were returned to office in 1970 led by Edward Heath, and the troubling economic and political climate of the 1970s meant that there was little appetite among either main party for pursuing a new initiative for reforming the Second Chamber. It was understandably a non-issue as far as the Conservatives anyway, for the existing composition of the House of Lords suited them very well, while the Labour Party, when it was returned to office in the February and October 1974 general elections, offered no new pledges concerning Lords reform. Indeed, as it was a minority government for most of the 1974–9 period, the last thing Labour wanted was further evidence of its weakness by launching into another House of Lords reform suicide mission.