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The UK Parliament has passed legislation ending the 800-year-old system allowing hereditary peers to automatically sit in the House of Lords. The bill eliminates all 92 remaining hereditary seats when the current parliamentary session ends in May 2025, completing reforms that began in 1999 when the number was reduced from over 750.

However, a behind-the-scenes deal allows 15 Conservative hereditary peers to convert their inherited positions into life peerages, effectively keeping them in the Lords until death or retirement. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch will select which peers benefit from this arrangement, in exchange for the party retiring some existing Conservative life peers to make room. The compromise secured Conservative support for the bill’s passage.

Critics argue this “back door” deal undermines the reform’s purpose by allowing hereditary influence to continue under a different title. The Electoral Reform Society notes similar conversions have already occurred, with hereditary peers receiving life peerages in recent honours lists. While marketed as ending inherited political power, the legislation may simply rebrand it for a select few.

Sources:

• Doomed hereditary peers spy chance to stay in the Lords - BBC News
• Hereditary peers to be removed from Lords as bill passes
• Hereditary peers to lose their seats in the House of Lords | House of Lords | The Guardian
• Hereditary peers: Labour kills off nearly 1,000 years of British history as controversial Lords plan passes

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