New peerages must not be ‘rewards for failure’, Electoral Reform Society warns

• Successive resignation honours lists risk ballooning size of already bloated Lords
• For more information, contact Mike Wright mike.wright@electoral-reform.org.uk or on 07525441135

The Electoral Reform Society is warning that life-time appointments to the House of Lords should not be handed out as ‘rewards for failure’.

Reports suggest Liz Truss could release an honours list following just 44-days in office after she announced her resignation as prime minister on Thursday [1].

It comes as former prime minister Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list is still yet to be published and risks creating a large influx of new peers, further ballooning the size of the already bloated second chamber.

The unelected Lords currently has around 800 members, making it larger than the elected Commons, which has 650 MPs, and also the second largest legislature in the world after China’s National People’s congress.

Only last week, Number 10 announced the creation of 26 new peers in an honours list [2]. Analysis by the Electoral Reform Society calculates these new appointments alone are likely to add around £727,000 a year [3] in additional costs to the Lords, as each new peer can claim £332 for every day they attend as well as travel expenses.

The latest honours lists come as successive prime ministers have failed to abide by plans to reduce the size of the Lords to around 600 members by only appointing one new peer for every two who step down [4].

Willie Sullivan, Senior Director (Campaigns) at the Electoral Reform Society, said:
“A seat in the House of Lords should not be a reward for failure. It’s a lifetime appointment to make our laws, not a gift to be handed out by a prime minister as they head out the door.

“If Liz Truss chooses to pack the Lords with new peers on leaving office, it will only further damage Westminster’s legitimacy at a time when public faith in politics is already stretched to the limit.

“We’re still waiting for Boris Johnson’s resignation honours to be announced, with a second Truss list added to the pile we could be seeing a bumper batch of appointments filling the already bloated house even more ex-MPs, donors and political allies.

“We need a smaller, elected House of Lords, where lawmakers are chosen by the people they serve not hand-picked by the prime minister of the day. It’s time to end this farce and deliver the democratic second chamber our country needs.”