'Modernisation' That Strengthens The Executive

The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act became law on 18 March. It removes the remaining ninety-two hereditary peers from the second chamber. Labour will tell you this is a long-overdue modernisation. What they will not tell you is what it actually changes.

What it changes is this: every seat in the Lords is now, in practice, in the gift of a Prime Minister. There is no elected element. There is no replacement constitutional reform. There is no cap on appointments. There is just a chamber of people the executive chose, scrutinising legislation the executive wrote.

If you wanted to design a system that consolidates power in Number 10, you would design exactly this.

The Bit They Skipped

The 1999 Lords Reform Act removed most hereditaries on the explicit promise that comprehensive reform — including elected elements — would follow. It never did. The 2026 Act finishes the first half of that bargain and quietly bins the second.

Labour had a manifesto commitment to a proper second-chamber settlement. That has now been deferred to 'a future date'. In Westminster English, that means never. The hereditaries weren't a great solution to the problem of an unelected upper house. But removing them while leaving the appointment system untouched isn't a solution either. It's worse.

Who Benefits

Sir Keir Starmer has already created more peers in eighteen months than Theresa May created in three years. Donors. Former MPs. Trade union officials. Special advisers. The new House of Lords is a more partisan chamber than at any point in living memory — and the constitutional brake just got loosened, not tightened.

Voters in Tameside and Wigan didn't ask for this. They asked for cheaper bills, secure borders, and a justice system that works. They got, instead, a constitutional rearrangement that hands more power to the very Prime Minister whose ratings sit at historic lows.

What Reform UK Would Do

Properly reform the upper house. A smaller, partly elected chamber with fixed terms, geographic representation, and a hard cap on appointments. Patronage is not democracy. A second chamber that exists to scrutinise the executive must not be entirely staffed by the executive's friends.

Labour has done the easy bit — removing tradition — and left the hard bit untouched. Reform would finish the job: a House that checks government rather than rubber-stamping it.