What does the pledge mean? 

Most members of the House of Lords are life peers, meaning they may sit in the House of Lords for their lifetime, but their peerage cannot be passed on to an heir. Twenty six Church of England archbishops and bishops are also entitled to sit in the House. 

In addition, approximately 11% of House of Lords members are hereditary peers who inherited their peerage through their family. The right to sit in the House of Lords was removed for most hereditary peers in 1999. However, as part of a compromise struck at that time, 92 seats for hereditary peers were retained.

When a hereditary peer leaves the House of Lords a by-election is held to replace them (though this process is currently paused while the proposed removal of the remaining hereditary peers is being considered). Hereditary peers who do not sit in the House of Lords can stand in these elections.

As part of plans to reform the House of Lords, Labour pledged in its manifesto to introduce legislation “to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords”; that is, removing the 92 seats retained for hereditary peers following the House of Lords Act 1999.

What progress has been made?

We’ve rated this pledge as “In progress—appears on track”. 

The pledge commits to introducing “legislation”, which is defined as “is a law or a set of laws that have been passed by Parliament”, but is also used to describe the act of making a new law. Given the pledge also commits to achieving “immediate modernisation” through the legislation we’ve assumed the commitment will be fulfilled when the law is passed.

The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 5 September 2024. 

If passed, it will repeal the section of the House of Lords Act 1999 which enabled 92 hereditary peers to continue to sit in the House of Lords when the remaining hereditary peers were excluded from the House. The Bill will also abolish the jurisdiction of the House of Lords in relation to claims to hereditary peerages (currently the House of Lords plays a role in adjudicating disputed peerage claims).

The Bill is currently progressing through its parliamentary stages. It will take effect at the end of the Session of Parliament in which it is passed, meaning hereditary peers will be removed from the House of Lords within a year of the Bill passing.