On Wednesday, 19th October 2016 the Scottish National Party used an allocated opposition day debate to seek to pressure the Government to give House of Lords reform a high priority. Opposition day debates are days allocated to allow opposition parties to bring a debate to the Commons on an issue of their own choosing. As Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, I was chosen by the Government to represent them at the dispatch box on this issue in the main chamber of the House of Commons. It was a great privilege to do so.
I spoke for around 18 minutes in which I accepted that the size of the House of Lords has become too large, but I recognised that it is a chamber which is home to experts in many fields from medicine to law, from the military to the environment. This source of unrivalled expertise helps the Government to create meaningful legislation on a variety of issues.
There is a need for reform of the House of Lords, especially as to its size, but it is very difficult to find a consensus on what exact reform should take place and it would be very difficult to succeed with measures which do not command support in Parliament- reform was also attempted in the last parliament and did not succeed. Consequently, with so much other business that is important to the day-to-day lives of my constituents, for me House of Lords reform is not a priority in this Parliament.