House of Lords speaker says it is too big and should be cut by a QUARTER in a radical overhaul
Lord Fowler says more than 200 peers should be dropped to bring it down to a more justifiable size
MORE than 200 peers should be dumped from the House of Lords - bringing numbers down by over a QUARTER – its new boss claims.
Lords speaker Lord Fowler said the Westminster’s bloated Upper House “cannot justify” its current size and admitted it was carrying “a few passengers”.
He said reform had been “hanging over the House like a cloud”.
And he insisted there was no way the Lords could defend its current size – 820 peers - when Theresa May was set to reduce the size of the Commons to 600 MPs.
In an interview, the Tory peer said: “I don’t think that we can justify a situation where you have over 800 peers at the same time as you’re bringing down the Commons to 600 MPs.
“At the moment I think we do now get the credit we deserve.
"One of the reasons we do not get the credit we deserve is that the size of the House gets in the way of that credit being given.”
He told the House magazine: “What we have to do first is to literally decide ‘what’s the number?’
“And at least the principle of ‘do we want to reduce the size of the House?’.
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“If it can be agreed as a general principle that the size of the Lords should be under the size of the Commons then we can make start making decisions.
“We’ve been faffing around on this for some time now. And my fear would be that unless we take the initiative something else will.”
Critics have repeatedly demanded reform of the Lords – from demanding an elected chamber to slashing the pay and perks of peers.
Peers can claim a daily allowance of £300 – even if just “clocking in” and doing a mere 40 minutes work a day.
The allowance is supposed to cover accommodation and living costs.
But last year the Sun revealed Baron Sewel slamming “these f*****s” who already live in London claiming the “free money”.
It emerged last year that Baroness Wilcox claimed £74,000 in attendance allowances over two years despite living in a £4 million home just 200 yards from Westminster.
There are currently 799 sitting peers with a further 26 on “leave of absence”. David Cameron named 13 new peers in his controversial ‘resignation honours’.
Lord Fowler insisted the vast majority of peers were “hard working and conscientious”.
But he admitted: “There are – how should I put it? – a few passengers.”
The peer – a former Cabinet Minister - replaced Baroness d’Souza in the Speaker role on September 1.
