What exactly are Labour's plans to reform the Lords?

Legislation to abolish the remaining hereditary peers’ right to sit in the House of Lords has been tabled by the government. Fulfilling a manifesto commitment, it is the first step in a proposed more radical reform of the upper chamber of parliament, intended to place it on a democratic footing. Minister for the constitution Nick Thomas-Symonds says the proposed law is a “landmark reform to our constitution” and marks an end to voting on laws “by an accident of birth”.

- SEAN O'GRADY

Is it a ‘landmark reform’?

Not really, though it is certainly a historic moment, ending the last vestiges of a hereditary role in making English law dating back to the 11th century. However, the number of peers affected, 92, is now only a small proportion of the total membership, which now stands at 805. The Lords also has relatively little power after more than a centre of periodic reform.

Why 92?

It is an arbitrary figure, the product of some horse-trading between the peers concerned and the Labour government led by Tony Blair. In order to get his reform of the Lords through the upper House, he agreed to keep 92 hereditaries in return for an agreement to remove the other 660 from the upper chamber one year later. That controversial deal was brokered by Lord Strathclyde, who is now leading the resistance to the government’s proposed changes.