Senior West Midlands politician Betty Boothroyd has condemned “destructive” Government plans to scrap the House of Lords and introduce elected regional senators instead.
Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell, who joined the Lords in 2001 after serving eight years as the high profile Speaker of the House of Commons, said the plans would be “a millstone around the necks of future generations”.
The Government is planning to abolish the Lords and replace it with a new body to be called the Senate, by 2015.
Under plans set out by Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Senate will include 60 appointed members and 240 elected members, who will represent regions.
It would mean the West Midlands, which has a population of around 5.2 million according to the 2001 census, could have around 24 senators, who would be chosen under a system of proportional representation.
But Lady Boothroyd, who was MP for West Bromwich West from 1974 to 2000, vowed to fight the plans.
She said: “Never in my experience has an institution at the heart of the British constitution been marked down for destruction on such spurious grounds.”
Speaking in the Lords, she added: “This is not reform of the House of Lords, as they would have us believe. They are set on abolishing this House. If this draft Bill becomes law in any shape or form, it will wreck this place as a deliberative assembly and tear up the roots that make it the most effective revising Chamber in the world.
“Worse still, the balance between our two Houses, on which our democracy and the rule of law depends, will be lost for ever.
“Why is this? Is it because the Government’s muddled thinking stems from the argument that both Chambers must be elected in order to be legitimate? That is the only reason offered. No other reason is on offer. It is certainly not the inability of Members of this House to do their job to the highest standards.”
In a later interview, Lady Boothroyd said she backed reform of the Lords but urged the Government to look at other changes, such as setting up an independent panel to choose peers and allowing peers to retire.
Birmingham peer Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, deputy leader of Labour peers, also attacked the proposals, warning that having two elected Chambers would bring “profound constitutional changes” which the government had not considered.
He said: “Unless a government is explicit about the powers of an elected second chamber, any attempt at reform is always going to be doomed to failure.”
Lord Dobbs, the author and Conservative peer, described the proposals as “stonkingly silly”.
