Lords Reform Bill Introduced

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30146, 1 June 1963, Page 11

Lords Reform Bill Introduced

Z.P A.-Reuter—Copynohti

LONDON, May 31. The British Government yesterday published a bill aimed at allowing some hereditary United Kingdom peers to stand for the House of Commons at the next election if they wish to do so. To qualify, a peer would have to “disclaim" for bis lifetime the hereditary peerages which entitle him to membership of the House of Lords. But the succession to the peerage on his death would not be affected. The bill arises from proposals for limited House of Lords reform made in the

wake of cases of “reluctant peers.” The most notable of these was Mr Anthony Wedgwood Benn s unavailing fight to remain in the Com-

mons as a Labour membei after he succeeded to the title of Viscount Stansgate on the death of his father. Viscount Hailsham (formerly Mr Quintin Hogg* now a senior Conservative Cabinet Minister, was another

who left the House of Commons reluctantly when he succeeded to the title. The bill adheres with some variations to the lines of the

already published broad principles of reform recently announced by an all-party committee and largely endorsed in simultaneous debates by both Houses of Parliament, No British Prime Minister

has been drawn from the ranks of the peers since the days of Lord Salisbury at the turn of the century This has aroused speculation of

how some peers who are now in the Government will react to the new legislation, which would enable them, if they wished, to stand for the House of Commons by disclaiming their titles. The Earl of Home, the

Foreign Secretary, has often been talked of as a possible Prime Minister, but for the fact that he sits in the House of Lords.

Politicians point out that he, however, could, apparently, remain the Earl of Home as a commoner. This is because this title is Scottish, and does not qualify him for membership of the House of Lords. He sits there

by virtue of a United Kingdom peerage as Baron Douglas—which would have to be relinquished—but there is no suggestion that Lord Home has ever contemplated giving up any of his titles, and Viscount Hailsham has also 'avoided committing himself The new bill proposes another reform This is to include in the already 900strong House of Lords—which is predominantly nonelected, hereditary and antiSocialist—all peers 'in the Peerage of Scotland, and peeresses in their own right in the Peerage of England. Scotland. Great Britain, and the United Kingdom It will also remove certain disqualifications on Irish peers in relation to elections to the House of Commons.