What are voters to make of unelected Lords delaying the Rwanda Bill?

Sir – People are told that voting gives them the democratic power to decide how Britain is run – and that, if they fail to exercise this right, they forfeit their say over important issues.

Given the actions of unelected and unaccountable peers in the House of Lords (“Rwanda flights delay after Lords rejects Sunak’s Bill”, report, March 21), that argument rings rather hollow. There seems little point in voting at all. Victoria Baillon

Shepton Mallet, Somerset

Sir – One of the major issues at the last general election was immigration, and our Government has been trying to enact the Rwanda scheme as a means of halting the dangerous, illegal Channel crossings.

Unfortunately, its efforts have been frustrated at every opportunity by unelected bodies. With another general election looming, it is clearly advantageous to Labour and the Liberal Democrats to delay the scheme

for as long as possible. But such a tactic would be a cynical and callous ploy, allowing criminal gangs to continue to flourish. Tony Manning

Barton-on-sea, Hampshire

Sir – What on earth is happening in Parliament?

The democratically elected Commons has become a disgrace, and the unaccountable Lords appears more in tune with the public mood. John Catchpole

Beverley, East Yorkshire

Sir – The Lords is meant to be a revising chamber, but it has evolved into something very different.

Now dominated by Leftists, it is a political force that wilfully blocks the elected Government from fulfilling the wishes of the electorate. This cannot be allowed to continue: the Lords’ activism is delaying legislation and wasting valuable parliamentary time.

The need to reform the Upper House

has often been discussed, but no action has been taken. The next government needs to be bold and do something. It is time to reduce the size of this relic and revise its role. Mick Ferrie

Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

Sir – The Archbishop of Canterbury, along with other bishops, has contributed to the Rwanda debate in the Lords.

The question is: why are there still Church of England bishops in the Upper House?

Justin Welby leads an institution that is cash and asset-rich but congregation-poor, at a time when around 70 per cent of Britain’s young people have no faith and no interest in religion.

The bishops in the Lords are an anachronism. If they wish to express their opinions, they should simply do so at elections, like the rest of us. Doug Morrison

Cranbrook, Kent