Remove seats for bishops in Lords, MPs tell Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to go further with reform of the House of Lords, with MPs calling for him to abolish bishops’ automatic seats in the chamber.

- MILLIE COOKE

It comes as the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill moved a step closer to becoming law with the second reading in the Commons yesterday.The landmark legislation, introduced last month, will remove the right of the remaining 92 hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords and is the largest constitutional reform to parliament in a quarter of a century. But Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael urged the government to go further, telling The Independent that removing bishops would “help build momentum for proper reform”.

Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, said further reform was necessary in order to end “centuries-old privilege”, lending support to “anything that makes the House of Lords more representative”. Aside from Iran, the UK is the only legislature in the world where clerics are automatically guaranteed a place in the legislature.