In UK's House of Lords, Out With the 'Hereditaries'

Centuries of British political tradition will end within weeks after Parliament voted to remove hereditary aristocrats from the unelected House of Lords. On Tuesday, upper chamber members dropped objections to legislation passed by the elected House of Commons ousting dozens of dukes, earls, and viscounts who inherited seats in Parliament along with their aristocratic titles, per the AP. MP Nick Thomas-Symonds said the change puts an end to "an archaic and undemocratic principle." "Our Parliament ... should never be a gallery of old boys networks, nor a place where titles, many of which were handed out centuries ago, hold power over the will of the people," he said.

The House of Lords plays an important role in Britain's parliamentary democracy, scrutinizing legislation passed by the elected House of Commons, though critics have long argued that it's unwieldy and undemocratic. The case of Peter Mandelson, who resigned from the House of Lords in February after revelations about his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, drew renewed attention to the upper chamber and the problem of lords behaving badly. The chamber currently has more than 800 members, making it the second-largest legislative chamber in the world after China's National People's Congress.

For most of its 700-year history, its membership was composed of noblemen—almost never women—who inherited their seats, alongside a smattering of bishops. In the 1950s, these were joined by "life peers"—retired politicians, civic leaders, and other notables appointed by the government, who now make up the vast majority of the chamber. Roughly 1 in 10 members are currently hereditary peers. In 1999, the Labour government of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair evicted most of the 750 hereditary peers, though 92 were allowed to remain temporarily to avoid an aristocrats' rebellion. It was another 25 years before PM Keir Starmer's current Labour government introduced legislation to oust the remaining "hereditaries."

The lords put up a fight, forcing a compromise that will see an undisclosed number of hereditary members allowed to stay by being "recycled" into life peers. The bill will become law once King Charles III grants royal assent—a formality—and the hereditary peers will leave at the end of the current session of Parliament this spring, completing a political process begun a quarter century ago. Labour remains committed to eventually replacing the House of Lords with an alternative second chamber that's "more representative of the UK."