“On this one, Labour have got it right. Giving 16- and 17-year-olds the vote is a long-overdue step towards a stronger, more inclusive democracy. Young people have powerful voices and a vital stake in decisions about their future — it’s only right that they have a say at the ballot box.
But if Labour are serious about renewing our democracy, this must be just the beginning. We need to go further — that means scrapping the undemocratic House of Lords, and finally delivering proportional representation so that every vote counts.”
Screen grab of members of the House of Lords looking up during a protest in the chamber after protesters calling for the abolition of the unelected chamber started shouting, singing and throwing leaflets, March 20, 2025
PROTESTERS disrupted proceedings in the House of Lords today [yesterday]to demand the abolition of the unelected chamber.
They threw leaflets, shouted and sang from the public gallery during the demonstration at noon.
The House was adjourned for a short time as the demonstrators were escorted out.
Protester Lucy Porter, 50, a primary school teacher from Leeds, said she was “campaigning for a house of the people.”
On the Lords, she said: “It’s a symbol of everything that’s outdated.
“We don’t have a functioning democracy in this country.”
The leaflets, apparently modelled on an album by the Sex Pistols punk band, had written on them: “Never mind the Lords here’s the House of People.”
On the other side it stated: “Aristocrats and oligarchs: Out. Posties, mums, nurses and neighbours: In.
King Charles III reading the King’s Speech in the House of Lords Chamber during the State Opening of Parliament in the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster in London, July 17, 2024
THE GOVERNMENT faced fresh criticism today after appointing several pro-Israel hardliners to the House of Lords.
Mike Katz, Luciana Berger, David Evans, Steve McCabe and Phil Wilson – who helped undermine left-wing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with anti-semitism allegations – are among 30 new Labour peers.
The appointees mostly comprise a string of ex-MPs and Sir Keir Starmer loyalists, including his former chief of staff Sue Gray.
A Jewish Voice for Labour spokesperson told the Star: “Mike Katz is one of several new peers rewarded for damaging the Labour Party we at JVL supported.
“These rewards [come] from a government keener on destroying that party than addressing the crises of poverty, oppression, war crimes and racism.”
Basem Farajallah, of the UK Gaza Community group, said the appointment of Mr Katz showed Labour is “still the same as the Conservatives … ignoring the mass support for the Palestinian cause” in Britain.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
King Charles III reads the King’s Speech, as Queen Camilla sits beside him during the State Opening of Parliament in the House of Lords, London, July 17, 2024
THE SNP has vowed to “sabotage” Labour’s “watered-down” House of Lords reforms with a deluge of amendments.
Labour’s House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, aiming to exclude the last remaining 92 hereditary peers from the legislature, faces its third reading in the House of Commons today.
But SNP MP Pete Wishart has tabled amendments ranging from abolishing the institution altogether to making peers’ £342 daily allowance liable for income tax.
Pointing to the “egregious example” of £18,808 paid to private healthcare tycoon Lord Hameed of Hampstead last year, despite him playing no role and failing to vote even once, Mr Wishart argues that taxing the £20 million paid out in allowances last year could generate over £9m — enough to restore Winter Fuel Payments to more than 22,000 pensioners in Scotland.
Urging Scottish Labour MPs to “at least” back him on taxing allowances, Mr Wishart commented: “That’s the only viable option for anyone who believes in democracy.
…
“The Labour Party has repeatedly broken its promise to abolish the House of Lords for more than a century and, frankly, this embarrassingly limited Bill is 114 years too little, too late.
“The undemocratic House of Lords is an archaic institution of the kind you’d find in a banana republic and it’s second only in size to the Congress of China costing taxpayers more than £200m a year.
… KEIR STARMER is preparing to scrap social care reforms and backtrack on proposals to abolish the House of Lords in the lead up to polling day, reports claim.
… Keir’s initial plans to abolish the Lords, informed by Gordon Brown’s constitutional review, recommended replacing the chamber with a democratic assembly of nations and regions.
However a report in The Observer claims the party is moving away from plans of making a complete rehaul a priority.
Instead … Keir, who has previously described the House of Lords as “indefensible,” will reportedly look to enact far less sweeping changes, such as capping the number of peers, and empowering a body to prevent “inappropriate” people from being granted peerages.
