The Lords they are a-leaping as vandals in ermine do their damnedest to frustrate ministers

Andrew Rawnsley

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The passage of time has turned the peers, especially those of the Tory variety, bolshie.

(House of Lords/PA)

In so much as the typical voter spends any time thinking about the House of Lords, they probably imagine it as a well-mannered and well-upholstered gated community for elderly politicians who are kept entertained by doing a bit of light legislating from their claret-coloured benches.

Yet the Lords can also be the arena for rough partisan politics every bit as fierce as the struggles that erupt down the corridor in the Commons. While the language may be a little more genteel in the upper house, the mood can still turn snarly. And so, to the grief of Labour ministers, it is proving at the moment.

When Sir Keir Starmer first brought his party back to power, opposition peers were cautious about resisting a government elected with a landslide parliamentary majority. Labour's vote share was far from resounding, but the government still enjoys much more democratic legitimacy than the entirely unelected peerage.