House of cronies

public anger towards the House of lords, highlighted by the Mail’s exclusive poll, should come as no shock. it is bursting at the seams with 780 members, packed full of cronies and retired politicians and unrepresentative of the british people.

polling commissioned by the Electoral Reform Society ahead of last week’s new appointments revealed that 78 per cent of people with a view believed there were already too many lords. This has been backed up by the Mail survey.

The Government is not blind to this public opposition. Theresa May sneakily announced the 13 new peers the evening before the Royal Wedding, which she knew would dominate the news in the following days.

it is time for cross- party legislation to reform this archaic, super- sized Second chamber. We’ve had years of stalling. The prime Minister must act.

DARREN HUGHES, chief executive of the Electoral

Reform Society, London SE1. THE House of lords is an out-of-date collection of spongers. We need an upper House to oversee government bills, but not in its current form.

if the Government has a majority in the commons, it can ignore the upper House; but if, as is the case now, the Government has no real majority, the commons can be manipulated by their lordships.

The Second chamber should be filled by matching a lord to each Mp of the same party, then the two houses would represent the will of the people.

And scrutiny by the lords should be restricted to the wording or feasibility of government bills. BOB MACDONALD GRUTE,

Newquay, Cornwall.