Conservative peers do not have an overall majority in the House of Lords

22 April 2024

After the Prime Minister suggested earlier today that Labour peers were delaying the government’s Rwanda bill, we’ve seen claims in response from a Labour MP and a journalist that there is a “Tory majority” in the House of Lords.

This isn’t correct. No party has an overall majority in the House of Lords. 

The Conservatives are the largest party in the Lords, with 277 peers, followed by 182 crossbench peers (not affiliated to a party), and 172 are Labour peers.

The remainder are either members of smaller parties or sit as independents.

We fact checked an opposite version of this claim made by defence minister Grant Shapps earlier this year.

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