Only one in five Britons want bishops in the Lords – new poll

Only one in five Britons wants bishops to have automatic seats in the House of Lords while most the public want them removed, a new poll has shown.

The YouGov poll has found that only 22% of respondents wanted to keep bishops in the House of Lords, while 52% wanted their removal. This public support follows on from recent attempts in Parliament to remove the bishops. Humanists UK has long campaigned to remove the bishops on the basis that it is unfair, unjustified, and unpopular with the public at large.

The only two sovereign states to award clerics of the established religion votes in their legislatures are the UK and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Not only this but the bishops get unique privileges, above and beyond other peers. As a 2020 report from the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group highlighted, bishops get unique easy access to Government officials, if a bishop stands up to speak then the convention is that everyone else has to stop and sit down, and the bishops’ votes on new laws have been decisive in instances that have benefited the Church.

With the UK becoming less and less religious, increasing support in Parliament for the removal of the bishops and widespread public support, it seems high time for the bishops to leave parliament.

The matter is expected to be debated further in Parliament, as the Hereditary Peers Bill is about to start its passage through the House of Lords. That Bill saw amendments to remove the bishops proposed in the Commons.

Humanists UK Director of Public Affairs and Policy Richy Thompson commented:

‘Yet again the public have come out in support of removing the undemocratic, discriminatory and antiquated arrangement of having 26 bishops of the Church of England in the House of Lords. Not only are the public against it but there seems to be increasing cross-party support for their removal in Parliament. Now is a real opportunity to deliver significant and lasting change to create a fairer democracy.’