House of Lords Reform (No. 2) Bill

Lord MacGregor of Pulham Market Excerpts

Friday 28th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord MacGregor of Pulham Market (Con)]

My Lords, it is a huge privilege to follow the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell. He has had a most distinguished career, has been a most distinguished Member of the House and has left us with very wise words and great wit. I respect his decision to leave, but all of us will be very sad that we will no longer have his presence in, and contribution to, this House. He has almost disproved the first point that I want to make, which I will come to in a moment, but I repeat: his has been a most distinguished career, and we thank him for it.

I want to be brief and will make only three points. Before I do, I would like to join the many who wish to congratulate my noble friend Lord Steel not only on bringing the Bill before us again but on his persistence on this issue over many years. I also pay tribute to my noble friends Lord Cormack and Lord Norton of Louth for all that they have done.

My first point is on the clauses on resignation and non-attendance. I was going to say, and still will say, that these particular clauses will not have much effect. Of course, the noble Lord, Lord Grenfell, has disproved the point that I wanted to make about resignation, but the proposal on non-attendance will be easy to evade for those who wish to do so. Therefore, despite the noble Lord’s lead, I do not expect much take-up. Nevertheless, it is something on which we can all agree and salvage from the long debates that we have had on House of Lords reform. There is no question that we shall have to tackle again the issue of the size of this House. I know that it is highly controversial and that there are many views. For my own part, I believe that the only long-term solution is to have some sort of retirement date, but it would certainly not be appropriate for any of this issue to be covered in a Private Member’s Bill.

Secondly, Clause 3, on conviction of serious offences, is right in itself, but it is also a small, positive step to avoid much bigger negative publicity. We all know that, despite all the good work of this House, what attracts the headlines, very often for a brief period, is some issue of that sort, which tends to put this House in a bad light. It is very important indeed that we have now taken that power to avoid that negative possibility.

I said that I wanted to be brief, so I now turn to my third point, which has already been referred to by my noble friend Lord Steel, which relates to the matter that Meg Russell of the Constitution Unit at UCL and other academics have raised on the question of Members who leave this House being able to stand immediately for election to the House of Commons. Apart from the fact that any proposal put forward and accepted in this Bill would destroy the Bill itself, I do not see the point of the amendment that they are proposing. Such circumstances are most unlikely to happen. After all, most Peers are appointed because of their experience and expertise. It is very unlikely that an aspiring young politician who wishes to stand for election to the other place would come into that category in the first place.

There are also many other objections. The Appointments Commission would obviously be asking questions about that. As my noble friend has said, leaders of parties would certainly spot that issue. Perhaps the most important point relates to the selection process that would take place before anyone could stand for election. Someone who had joined this House for a short period, who then wished to stand for the other place and retire from this House, would have questions to answer in any selection process. In the ultimate democratic process—the election itself—I am sure that that, too, would be an issue. From long experience of the other House and this place, I simply do not believe that aspiring young politicians would see that as a route to membership of the House of Commons. Therefore, that amendment should be dismissed straightaway.

However, even if someone took that route, so what? My mind goes back to the summer of 1963, when as quite a young person I was asked to join, and agreed to join, my noble friend Lord Lawson as what I think was then called a special assistant to the Prime Minister—we were, I think, the early forerunners of special advisers. I had signed my contract to go and work for Harold Macmillan but he shortly afterwards resigned, and I found myself as one of the special assistants to Sir Alec Douglas-Home. We will all recall that he left this House to stand again—he had already been a Member of the House of Commons—for the other place. He went through the democratic process of being selected and then elected. How much we would have lost if that had not been possible. I therefore feel strongly that there is no point in the amendment being put forward by Meg Russell. It is for the electorate to decide.

I promised to be quick, so I will simply say that I hope that this Bill, unamended, will get a very speedy passage through this House.