Harriet Harman, a seasoned former MP and minister who has recently joined the House of Lords, has announced her intention to propose an amendment aimed at removing the 26 seats in the upper chamber currently allocated to Church of England bishops. Speaking to POLITICO, Harman stated, “There’s nobody who can justify, in 2024, people coming into our legislature in order to scrutinize legislation with their admission being based on ordination in the Church of England.”
Meanwhile, other Labour backbenchers are advocating for placing the body responsible for approving Lords appointments on a statutory footing. In contrast, Conservative peers are pushing to delay the abolition of hereditary peerages until after the next general election.
The House of Lords has faced criticism recently, with Conservative members being accused of stalling government legislative progress. This comes amid concerns over the potential abolition of 46 hereditary peer positions held by Conservatives.
One contentious area has been the government’s Football Governance Bill, which is undergoing an extended six-day committee stage—typically reserved for significant institutional or constitutional reforms. A government source noted that opposition peers have similarly been extending debates on other bills, describing the behavior as deliberately lengthy deliberations.
A crossbench peer, speaking anonymously, dismissed the tactics as “silly antics” but cautioned about their potential consequences given the current legislative backlog. “It’s an incredibly heavy legislative program, and here we are six months into the session, and we haven’t got to any of the meaty ones [bills] yet,” they remarked.
The Conservative Party was contacted for a response.
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