House of Lords Act 1999

Prior to the 16th century, the Lords was the more powerful of the two houses of Parliament. inflicting the biggest defeat for the Conservatives since 1832. The Labour Party had for years endorsed abolition of the House of Lords in its election platforms, though since 1992 this had changed to a policy of reforming the House instead of such a drastic constitutional change. During the 20th century, Liberal and Labour governments proposed many bills that were opposed by the House of Lords, which had been dominated by Conservatives since the 1890s, leading to some delay and, where proposed before elections, their dropping from the legislative agenda. The rejection considered the most contentious was that of the European Elections Bill, against which the Lords voted five times. Blair stated that the Conservatives were using the hereditary peers to "frustrate" and "overturn the will of the democratically elected House of Commons". ==Bill==

, Leader of the House of Commons, introduced the Bill , the Conservative Leader of the Opposition, led the opposition to the act The House of Lords Bill was expected to face a tough fight in the House of Lords. Several Lords threatened to disrupt the Government's other bills if they continued with the plan to abolish the hereditaries' right to sit in the House of Lords. Michael Onslow, 7th Earl of Onslow, for instance, said, "I'm happy to force a division on each and every clause of the Scotland Bill. Each division takes 20 minutes and there are more than 270 clauses." Stuart Randall, Baron Randall of St Budeaux put forward the idea of phasing out the hereditary peers by disqualifying their heirs. Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington reminded the House that under the Salisbury Convention they could not block the bill. In order to convince some peers to vote for reform, Tony Blair announced that he would compromise by allowing a number of hereditary peers to remain in the House of Lords on an interim basis. On 2 December 1998, the Conservative Leader of the Opposition, William Hague, rose in the House of Commons to attack Blair's plans. He suggested that Blair's changes indicated his lack of principles, claiming that Blair wanted to turn the House of Lords into a "House of Cronies". Hague further suggested that the Conservative Party would never agree to such constitutional reforms that were "based on no comprehensive plan or principle." The Government, however, responded that the Articles did envisage a change in the election of representative peers. It was argued that some portions of the Treaty were entrenched, while others were not. For instance, Scotland and England were united "forever," the Scottish Court of Session was to "remain in all time coming within Scotland as it is now constituted," and the establishment of the Church of Scotland was "effectually and unalterably secured." However, it was suggested, the election of Scottish representative peers was not entrenched, and therefore could be amended. Furthermore, the Government argued that Parliament was entirely sovereign and supreme, and could at its will change the Articles of Union. For example, the Treaty of Union joining Great Britain and Ireland required that the two nations be united "forever". Nonetheless, in 1922, by an act of Parliament, most of Ireland was made independent as the Irish Free State. Thus, even entrenched clauses were argued to be open to amendment by the authority of Parliament. The Committee agreed and reported to the House on 20 October 1999 that the Bill was indeed lawful in this regard. After the Committee's first and second reports were considered, the Lords passed the bill 221 to 81 on 26 October 1999.{{cite web == Membership of the House of Lords ==

The House of Lords Act 1999 first provides that "No-one shall be a member of the House of Lords by virtue of an hereditary peerage." and also offered life peerages to the royal peers (of whom only the Earl of Snowdon accepted): William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, died on 1 July 1999; had he lived he would have been eligible as a former Leader of the House of Lords 1983–1988 and as a first holder of his hereditary peerage, also David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles, died 24 February 1999; had he also lived he would have been eligible as a first holder of his hereditary peerage. Additionally, life peerages were created for all living former Leaders of the House of Lords who were hereditary peers (Quintin Hogg already held a life peerage since 1970): The following hereditary peers who had been created life peers remained in the House after the act was passed, they were: Life peerages were also offered to members of the royal family with new hereditary peerages, but were declined, as this would have meant they would continue to hold seats in the reformed House of Lords: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; Charles, Prince of Wales; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward (who was created Earl of Wessex on his wedding day). First election to the House of Lords Before the granting of Royal Assent, the Lords had adopted a Standing Order making provision for the election of those hereditary peers who would remain members of the House under section 2 of the act. five in 2021, six in 2022, and three in 2023. Voting is by preferential voting, with peers ranking the candidates in order of preference. As many or as few preferences as desired may be indicated. To win the election, a peer must receive at least one half of the available votes. If no candidate receives this number of first preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first preference votes is eliminated, with each of their votes being redistributed according to the second preference marked on the ballot (see instant-runoff voting). The process is continued until one candidate receives at least one half of the remaining votes. ==Subsequent reform proposals==

Labour proposals to remove remaining hereditary peers (until 2009) The Labour Government expected eventually to present a bill for a second stage of House of Lords reform based on Lord Steel's earlier bills, which aimed to remove the remaining 92 hereditary peers; Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg spearheaded the push to bring in the changes. In August 2012, the coalition's plans were dropped. The House of Lords (Expulsion and Suspension) Act 2015 authorised the House of Lords to expel or suspend a member for serious misconduct; expelled members are permanently barred from returning to the House. Unlike the 2014 Act, members did not have to have been sentenced to at least a year's imprisonment in order to be expelled for misconduct. The act was introduced by Baroness Hayman to address the "narrow" circumstances for expulsion set out in the 2014 Act. Final attempts to phase out hereditary peers An amendment to the 1999 Act was proposed by Labour peer Lord Grocott to abolish by-elections, but was filibustered in 2016 by Conservative hereditary peer Lord Trefgarne. The remaining hereditary peers were excluded from the Lords by the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026. ==See also==