Labour moves to expel last 92 hereditary peers from Lords

The government is to banish all remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords in the biggest shake-up of parliament in a quarter of a century.

- Eleni Courea

The UK's 92 remaining hereditary peers who have inherited their titles from their parents - will lose their right to sit and vote in the upper chamber under proposals put forward by ministers today.

The move would complete reforms first made by Tony Blair's government, which revoked the 700-year-old right of all hereditary peers to sit in the Lords in 1999. Just 92 of them, elected from the whole group, were allowed to remain until an agreement could be reached to phase them out altogether.

All 92 hereditary peers who now hold seats in the Lords are white men, and their average age is just under 70. They have continued to top up their numbers by holding byelections when one of them retires or dies.

Campaigners have long called for the system to be overhauled. In its manifesto, Labour said the continued existence of hereditary peers was "indefensible".