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The Lord Speaker has renewed his concern that the upper house of Parliament needs more independent peers and experts amid the ongoing controversy over the appointments process. Lord McFall told The Guardian an "eagle eye" must be kept on the composition of the House, which he said risked losing "sync" with its balance of lawmakers. It comes amid a dispute over plans by former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to hand out peerages to dozens of allies and donors.
The Lord Speaker, who has a neutral role, stressed that he was not making any direct criticism of the recent peerage elections, according to the newspaper. But he said too many politicians without enough outside experts in the Lords could undermine their role by taking a broader view of legislation.
“The House of Lords does not challenge the House of Commons but complements it, so the composition of the House of Lords must be different from that of the House of Commons,” he told the newspaper.
Lord McFall meets Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to urge him to lift the cap on the number of non-partisan expert peers the House of Lords Nominating Committee (HOLAC) can create, which is currently set at a maximum of two per year.
The threshold was temporarily imposed by David Cameron in 2012, but was never lifted.
From 2011 to 2022, HOLAC created only 17 new pairs out of almost 400 in total during the same period.
We've got to keep an eagle eye on (the balance of the lords)
The Speaker, a former Labor MP who has previously called for Lords reform, argued that large-scale replacement with a fully elected upper house would create "fundamental challenges" to the ability to deliver "good and effective legislation".
The Lords is under new scrutiny after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused of using it to reward 'friends' and seek appointments from wealthy party donors.
Conservative colleague Lady Mone has taken time off to fight claims she may have profited from more than £200m worth of PPE contracts after recommending a company to ministers at the start of the coronavirus pandemic coronavirus.
And Ms Truss, whose 49 days in Downing Street made her the shortest prime minister in British political history, is said to have nominated former advisers and patrons for an upper house seat as part of the honors given to a prime minister can recommend after his resignation.
Labor and the Liberal Democrats have called on his successor, Rishi Sunak, to block the nominations.
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