The hereditary peerage seats in the House of Lords of the British Parliament will be abolished, causing a shock

Recently, a proposal by the British government has caused a huge shock. According to a report by The Guardian on September 5, the current Labour government has proposed to abolish the seats and powers of the remaining 92 hereditary peers in the House of Lords of the British Parliament. The relevant bill was read for the first time in the House of Commons on that day.

The House of Lords in the UK is also known as the "House of Peers". Its members are mainly British nobles and archbishops or bishops of the Church of England. Hereditary peers generally obtain seats in the House of Lords by inheriting their parents' noble titles, and the positions are for life. In 1999, the Labour government led by Blair passed reform measures to abolish the relevant rights of 667 hereditary peers and only allowed 92 hereditary peers elected from this group to continue to retain their rights until the next reform. Now, these 92 hereditary peers will also be abolished. They are all white men with an average age close to 70.

This measure is called "landmark" and is the largest parliamentary reform in the UK since the 21st century. It is expected to take effect next year. While abolishing hereditary peers, the reform will also introduce a number of life peers to strengthen the House of Lords, including many new peers, and set the upper age limit for retirement of life peers at 80. For a long time, British activists have been calling for a thorough reform of this system. The Labour Party also stated in its manifesto that the continued existence of hereditary peers is "untenable".

However, this reform has also aroused dissatisfaction among some hereditary peers in the House of Lords. The 19th Earl of Devon, 49-year-old Courtenay, believes that sitting in the House of Lords as a hereditary peer is a "privilege", and replacing it with an elected parliament will be a "complete disaster" and will completely overturn the British constitutional system. But the British government says the hereditary principle is out of step with modern Britain. The British government predicts that the bill "will go through a long debate" after entering the House of Lords. This reform means that hereditary peers in the House of Lords of the UK will completely become history, and the campaign promise of the Labour government will also be fulfilled. The follow-up progress of British parliamentary reform is closely watched by all sectors.