Tuesday 11 August 2015

UKIP demands 12 new peers

UKIP has written to David Cameron demanding the appointment of 12 new UKIP peers to reflect the result of the general election.

There are just three UKIP peers - all defections - to represent the views of 3.9m UKIP voters whilst the Lib Dems currently have 102 peers and are adding 10 or 11 to the tally this year despite only getting 2.4m votes.

David Cameron has already dismissed UKIP's request for him to make good on his promise to make appointments to the House of Lords reflect the result of the general election, saying that he won't even consider it until 2020 at the earliest.

There are currently 821 members of the House of Lords, 40 of which are suspended or not allowed to sit in the upper house. With the House of Lords getting stuffed with new political appointments after every election and before every contentious vote it won't be long before it tips over the 1,000 mark. It's time for a clear-out of the House of Lords and to either make Lords match votes or return to the hereditary system that made the political balance of the upper house an accident of birth.