House of Lords Reform: 61% Want an Elected Upper Chamber — UK Polling

Labour’s Reform Plans

Labour’s 2024 manifesto described Lords reform as a multi-stage process. Stage one — removal of hereditary peers — is complete. Stage two involves a Constitutional Reform Commission which is expected to report in 2026 with recommendations on future composition.

Key questions for the commission include:

Should the upper chamber be fully elected, partially elected, or reformed-appointed?
What powers should it have? (Currently the Lords can delay but not block most legislation.)
What electoral system would be used if elections are introduced? (Most proposals suggest PR, to avoid replicating FPTP distortions.)
What should happen to existing life peers? (Scrapping all appointments creates significant practical problems.)
Should the 26 Church of England bishops retain automatic seats? (Polling shows 65% say no.)

61%

want a fully or partially elected upper chamber

65%

want to remove bishops’ automatic reserved seats

72%

say the Lords should be smaller than its current 780 members

Arguments For and Against Lords Reform

Case For an Elected Lords

Democratic legitimacy: unelected legislators are hard to defend
Political patronage creates a perception of corruption
780 members is too large and inefficient
Bishops’ reserved seats breach secular democratic norms
An elected chamber could hold governments to account more effectively
Most democracies manage with elected upper houses

Case Against Elected Lords

A democratically elected Lords might clash with the Commons (gridlock)
Would lose independent cross-bench expertise (scientists, lawyers, generals)
Could become a political battleground like the US Senate
Constitutional role would need to be renegotiated
Reform could weaken the Lords’ willingness to revise legislation
Transition would be enormously complex

Alternative Models: What an Elected Lords Could Look Like

Several concrete reform proposals have been advanced over the decades. The most detailed recent proposal came from the 2012 Joint Committee on Draft House of Lords Reform Bill, which recommended an 80% elected, 20% appointed chamber of 450 members using STV over three election cycles.

Model	Size	Composition	Electoral system
Status quo	~780	100% appointed + 26 bishops	None
Bleached appointments	~500	100% appointed by independent commission	None (merit-based appointment)
Hybrid chamber	450	80% elected, 20% appointed	STV over 3 cycles (Clegg 2012 proposal)
Fully elected senate	300-400	100% elected	List PR or AMS (most proposals)
Regional senate	350	Elected by nation/region	STV within regional constituencies

The Powers Question

Any elected Lords reform must address its powers. Currently, the Lords can delay non-money bills for up to one year. An elected chamber with democratic legitimacy might demand stronger powers — potentially creating gridlock with the Commons. Most reform proposals therefore propose limited powers similar to the current Lords but with stronger legitimacy to use them.

The German Bundesrat model — where regional governments send representatives to a second chamber — has been proposed for a UK context, potentially giving Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and English regions direct representation in Westminster legislation for the first time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the House of Lords block legislation?

The Lords can delay most legislation by up to one year (under the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949), but cannot permanently block it if the Commons insists. They cannot block Money Bills at all. In practice, the Lords’ main role is revision and delay, not permanent veto. The so-called Salisbury Convention means the Lords does not block manifesto commitments of an elected government.

Who appoints life peers?

Life peers are appointed by the King on the advice of the Prime Minister. In practice, each party leader nominates peers in proportion to Commons representation, plus the PM can appoint independently. Critics argue this system has been abused by multiple prime ministers to reward donors and allies. The House of Lords Appointments Commission vets nominees for propriety but cannot reject political appointees.

How many Lords does the UK have compared to other countries?

The UK House of Lords with ~780 members is the second-largest legislative chamber in the world after the Chinese National People’s Congress. The US Senate has 100 members, the French Senate 348, the German Bundesrat 69, the Australian Senate 76. By any comparison, 780 is extremely large for a revising chamber.

What happened to the 2011 Lords Reform Bill?

Nick Clegg’s Lords Reform Bill of 2012 proposed an 80% elected, 20% appointed chamber of 450 members using STV proportional representation. It passed its second reading but was abandoned after 91 Conservative MPs voted against it in protest at the government’s AV referendum defeat. The failure of that bill has since informed discussions about how to sequence and frame future reform.