PM urged to reform the House of Lords

PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson has been urged to reform the House of Lords amid accusations Parliament’s second chamber is failing to represent the North of England effectively.

Analysis from the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) has found that 55 per cent of peers reside in the capital, or the East and SouthEast of England.

Yorkshire and the Humber has 31 peers – just six per cent – living in the region, while Wales has four per cent and Scotland has nine per cent.

The campaigners claimed that the disparity makes a mockery of his agenda to spread power throughout the country.

The ERS’s chief executive, Darren Hughes, said: “The unelected House of Lords is looking increasingly like a Westminster private member’s club, with voices outside of London and the SouthEast locked out.

“This totally undermines the Government’s stated intention to ‘level up’ the regions, when we have a chamber that is skewed towards one patch of England.

“This is a major inequity in the heart of our politics, and means the expertise and skills of huge parts of the UK go ignored.

“It’s time for a fairly-elected revising chamber that can stand up for the UK’s nations and regions.”

revealed last month that Mr Johnson had suggested Parliament could temporarily move north to York while the Palace of Westminster undergoes multi-billion pound renovations.

The Prime Minister said that a location outside of London should be considered to temporarily accommodate both the Commons and the Lords while major works are carried out on their historic home in the capital.

York Council’s Liberal Democrat leader, Keith Aspden, said: “We have long called for the Lords to be reformed to ensure those who scrutinise the laws made in the Commons are also directly elected by the people.

“Whilst all efforts to do this have been blocked by consecutive Conservative and Labour governments, we must ensure that any proposals which strive to make the Westminster political power structure more representative and decentralised are properly examined.”

The ERS combed the latest expense forms from February to get the residence data for 489 of 792 peers, before comparing it against the Office for National Statistics’ latest population estimates.