The Queen’s nephew, an anti-skunk campaigner and a 24-year-old graduate are among those seeking election to the Lords as hereditary peers, according to the latest ballot in the house.
Nineteen applicants are seeking to fill a slot in the House of Lords after the retirement of the crossbench peer Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. Only other hereditary crossbench peers can vote in the byelection, a system that the Electoral Reform Society has previously called “ludicrous”.
According to the byelection papers, the furniture designer David Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon, a nephew of the Queen, has submitted his name for consideration. Unlike the other applicants, he has not submitted any supporting statement.
His candidacy could prove uncomfortable for the royal family, given they are supposed to be politically neutral. He is 19th in line to the throne, the son of the Queen’s younger sister Princess Margaret and her husband Antony Armstrong-Jones.
Appointments to the House of Lords
Can the government create peers at any time?
The government can create new peers whenever it likes. But there are a few conventions, agreed between all the parties, and all nominations for a peerage have to be approved. Tax dodging and criminal convictions usually rule out appointment. Outgoing prime ministers often reward old chums with a peerage. Occasionally an MP is propelled into the Lords to create a spare seat in the Commons. By recent custom, peers are created without shifting the balance of power from no overall control.
Is there a limit?
No, and famously the Lords is the second biggest legislative chamber after China’s national people’s congress. It has 750 members, of whom 150 or so inherited their titles. When one dies there is an election among other hereditaries in the same party. When the Lib Dem peer Lord Avebury died, an electorate of three voted for his successor. Efforts at shrinking it have led to a retirement scheme but not much else.
What are the alternatives?
Most democratic countries have an elected second chamber, if they have a second chamber at all. Some have a mix of appointed and elected. Efforts to reform the house of lords have foundered on disagreement on questions of scale – how big, what proportion should be elected and on what basis – first past the post, single transferable vote, alternative vote … a fresh start would make almost anything possible. One idea gaining traction is that it should represent the United Kingdom, bringing together England, Scotland, northern Ireland and Wales in a kind of federal body. But the most contentious question is always whether an elected second chamber would have more powers, which would weaken the House of Commons
Others who have submitted their short election statements include a retired naval Commander and the 24-year-old aspiring banker Lord Glenconner, who in his statement describes himself as a history graduate who will “shortly be embarking on a career in the financial services”.
“Being of an independent mind and spirit I believe I can contribute to the important work of the house,” he wrote.
Glenconner, whose full name is Cody Tennant, came to prominence in 2013 when aged 19 he launched a legal bid to challenge his grandfather’s will in the high court of St Lucia after it emerged he had left his fortune to his valet.
Other candidates include the designer Earl Albemarle, who wrote that he could bring much needed creativity to the Lords. “It would be interesting to analyse the make up of the crossbench peers,” he wrote.
“To see the balance between the ‘right-brained’ individuals who are meant to be more subjective, creative who rely on intuition and the percentage of ‘left-brained’, who are objective, analytical, and rely on reasoning. I personally can only offer the crossbenches my right side of the brain.”
Candidates wrote of their interests in a wide-range of subjects, including “thoroughbred breeding, conservation and ancient landscapes”.
Another, Lord Monson, said he wanted to join the house to campaign “for greater awareness of the damage frequently wreaked by pervasive high potency cannabis”.
Monson’s campaign was prompted by the loss of his two sons. An inquest found that his eldest son, Alexander, had died “violently” at the hands of the police aged 28. His youngest son, Rupert Green, killed himself, which Monson has said was because he was turned away by NHS mental health services, having suffered from psychosis as a result of an addiction to skunk.
The system of byelections for hereditary peers dates back to the 1999 House of Lords Act, which removed most of the hereditary peers from the Lords and gave seats to just 92, intended to be a temporary solution.
Byelections are held whenever vacancies occur, because of the death or retirement of a hereditary peer. In April 2016, when there was a byelection for a Liberal Democrat hereditary peer, just three Lib Dem hereditary peers remained in the House of Lords. Seven candidates put themselves forward, meaning there were more candidates than voters.
Only candidates who have inherited a title are eligible to stand, and only if they have put their name forward to be included on the register of hereditary peers. Out of 211 on the list, only one is a woman. There is only one female hereditary peer currently sitting in the entire House of Lords, the Countess of Mar.
