Older Lords ‘must be forced out to make way for new blood’

THE House of Lords should consider forcing elderly members to retire because it is so big that it is no longer functioning properly, members of the committee that vets peers have suggested.

David Cameron used the dissolution honours list to create 45 new peers, taking membership of the Upper House to more than 800 and making it the second-largest legislative body in the world after the National People’s Congress of China.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that members of the seven-strong Lords appointments committee are concerned by the number of newcomers. A source close to the committee said: “There is a widespread feeling that it is too big. There is not enough time for people who want to speak, there is not enough room, it impacts on everybody.”

The source suggested that a limit could be placed on the amount of time that a peer is allowed to be in the Lords.

Mr Cameron has faced accusations of “cronyism” after appointing a series of aides to the House of Lords alongside some of the party’s biggest donors.

Baroness Deech, a cross-bench peer, said a stricter vetting procedure should be introduced to ensure that there were “no more donors or bag carriers” appointed. A retirement age or limit on the length of service should be introduced to ensure that the chamber reduced in size, she suggested.

Lord Lawson, the former Conservative chancellor, said the number of appointments was making the House look “ridiculous”, while Lord Tebbit, the former party chairman, said that they were the “most depressing in living memory”.