800 Lords a Leaping!
Ohh Lordy Lord
The House of Lords, Britain’s upper chamber of parliament has a steep history
Along with the lower chamber, the House of Commons, the Lords as we know it today was formed 316 years ago (in 1707), although this was a continuation of earlier forms of parliament going back to Medieval Britain over 900 years ago
Currently, there are 778 members of the House of Lords which makes Britain’s upper chamber the second largest legislative chamber in the world, behind China’s National People’s Congress which has almost 3,000 members
However, this number is not fixed and new laws governing membership have changed who is able to sit as a Lord
Who is currently in the House of Lords?
There are two types of Lords:
- Lords Temporal, which include Life Peers (who serve for their life) and Hereditary Peers¹ (elected from the 807 people who are members through right of birth)
- Lords Spiritual which include Bishops in the Church of England such as the Archbishop of Canterbury
Life peers make up the majority of members of the House of Lords (663) followed by 90 Hereditary peers and 25 Bishops
The number of Hereditary peers is a lot lower than it used to be. Historically, anyone with a peerage in the UK had a right to vote in the Lords. However, since 1999 the number of Hereditary peers in the House of Lords was capped to 92. These Lords are now elected from the 807 people with peerages in the UK (including 29 dukes, 34 marquesses, 190 earls, 111 viscounts, and 443 barons)
While most Lords affiliate with the Conversative Party (261), they don’t make up a majority. Overall, there’s 174 Labour peers, 83 Liberal Democrats and 13 associated with another political party
On top of this, there are 185 Lords who are officially “Crossbench” which means the transcend more than one political party and a further 39 who are not affiliated with any party at all
Some of these peers have been in the Lords for quite a while. The longest serving is Rt Hon. The Lord Trefgarne, a Conversative peer, who took his seat in June 1962 and has served in the upper chamber for the 61 years since
This isn’t the oldest member, however. That honor is reserved for The Lord Christopher, a Labour peer who is 98 years old and has been in the Lords since 1998
How are Life Peerages chosen?
Peerages are created by acts of parliament, and therefore, each Prime Minister can nominate new Lords to the upper chamber
There number of Lords have been increasing recently, with both Conservative and Labour governments equally responsible for adding new peers. The Prime Ministers that have added the most are:
- Tony Blair: 374 new members of the House of Lords in 10 years
- David Cameron: 245 new members in 6 years
- Harold Wilson: 215 members in under 8 years, over two separate terms
- Margaret Thatcher: 201 in 11.5 years
However, each party doesn’t only nominate peers from their party. For example, of Tony Blair’s peerages, 162 were Labour Lords but 61 Conservatives were made a peer along with 54 Liberal Democrats and 91 Crossbench Lords
Even short-lived Prime Ministers have nominated their own Lords. Liz Truss added 29 Lords in her 44 days in power, which technically made her the most prolific creator of Life Peerages in the upper chamber
How many other countries have an unelected chamber?
Plenty of parliaments have a lower and upper chamber, although the way their elected does vary
There are 81 countries with a bicameral parliament (two chambers) and a further 102 with a unicameral legislature (one chamber)
Most upper chambers use some form of elective process (whether that be First Passed the Post, Proportional Representation or another system) but there are some, like the House of Lords, who indirectly elect or nominate the members. For example:
- representatives on France’s Senate are indirectly elected by 150,000 officials from across the country such as mayors and local councilors
- Belgium’s Senate has 50 seats that are nominated by regional parliaments and a further 10 that are co-opted by the other Senators
- Some states have upper chambers that appointed by their Head of State (including some Caribbean countries like Antigua and the Bahamas) or Monarch (such as Bahrain and Afghanistan)
And some countries have removed their upper chamber, in some cases because it was unelected. This includes Costa Rica (1847–1871 and 1919), Croatia (2001), Greece (1935), Hungary (1960), South Korea (1960), Peru (1992), Portugal (1926), Turkey (1980), Venezuela (1999), and Mauritania (2017), Denmark (1953) and Sweden (1970)
Check out more GoodStats about British politics:
- The BBC — a timeless British institution… but can it get back with the times?
- Queuing for the Queen; In Memory of her Majesty
- Liz talk about London’s new route; No one is cross (or railing) about the Elizabeth line anymore
