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King's Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms walk through the Royal Gallery during the State Opening of Parliament, in the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster in London, May 13, 2026
ELECTORAL reform campaigners welcomed a Bill to abolish the House of Lords today as a “step to a democratic and legitimate second chamber.”
The Electoral Reform Society’s Dr Jess Garland called the upper chamber in its current form “indefensible.”
Plaid Cymru peer Baroness Carmen Smith presented her House of Lords (Alternative Second Chamber) Bill to the second chamber for its first reading.
The private member’s Bill will establish a framework for the government to consult stakeholders on the replacement of the House of Lords with an alternative second chamber, as outlined in the 2024 Labour manifesto.
Baroness Smith said: “The House of Lords is an outdated institution that has no place in a modern democracy.
“It is disappointing that the current Labour UK government has rolled back on earlier commitments to abolish and replace the Lords, despite the Prime Minister himself once describing the institution as ‘indefensible’.”
