House of Lords: pros and cons of an unelected chamber
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The Brexit debate has brought fresh scrutiny to the role of Parliament’s upper chamber.
A petition to hold a referendum on scrapping the House of Lords has reached more than 150,000 signatures, meaning the issue will be debated in the House of Commons on 18 June.
‘It could spell the end of almost 700 years of unelected peers wielding power in Britain,’ says the Daily Express.
The upper chamber has faced criticism from Brexiteers in recent weeks after a series of striking defeats for the government’s EU withdrawal bill.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was among those to urge peers to respect the result of the EU referendum, saying ‘they shouldn’t frustrate it under any circumstances because they do not represent the sovereign will of the British people’.
The petition, set up by Robert McBride, calls for a referendum on the abolition of the chamber.
‘The House of Lords is a place of patronage where unelected and unaccountable individuals hold a disproportionate amount of influence and...
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