Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)
My Lords, before the Minister responds, I wonder whether there may be an opportunity for he and I to discuss this through the usual channels. Not only do we have hereditary Peers by-elections, against which this House has voted in principle—with no disrespect to those candidates who come into the House, whom we welcome—numerous times. We also have additional Members coming to the House as Ministers—about 10 in the past couple of years—and now there are reports of a further prime ministerial resignation honours list from the Prime Minister, who has been in post for only about a month. It seems that we ought to have a little more thought about the membership of this House and, as the Burns report says, not having a House of quite the size it is, but one that allows us to do our best work in the best way. It would be helpful if we could discuss in a sensible, practical and respectful way ensuring that this House is of a size that enables us to do our job in the best way possible.
The Lord Privy Seal (Lord True) (Con)
My Lords, the noble Baroness talks about the size of the House, and I noticed the difficulty of finding a place on your Lordships’ Benches today. On the usual channels, I prefer to have such discussions in private, rather than on the Floor of the House. As far as new Peers are concerned, I simply say that I look forward to welcoming the eight new Labour peers who were appointed on the recommendation of the leader of the Opposition.