Today in the Commons MPs from multiple parties criticised the automatic right of bishops to sit in the House of Lords. They made their views clear as part of a debate on the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, with amendments being proposed to remove the 26 reserved places for Church of England bishops. One amendment was proposed by a large number of Conservative MPs with support from Reform, the SNP, and two Labour backbenchers. Another was proposed by the Lib Dems, with support from the Green Party. However, all amendments were defeated due to Government concerns about broadening the Bill. Humanists UK welcomed the debate, having briefed MPs in advance, and hopes it means that the bishops will be considered next for removal.
Conservative MP Sir Gavin Williamson, proposer of one of the amendments, summed up the problem of bishops in the House of Lords by saying, ‘It is fundamentally unfair that we still have a situation where a bloc of clerics have a right and a say over our legislation—over how my constituents live’ He also pointed out that ‘Only one other sovereign country has clerics in its parliamentary body, which is Iran.’
Meanwhile Liberal Democrat MP Freddie Van Mierlo, who also brought up his ‘zeal for the removal of the Bishops’ mentioned the special privileges that the bishops have in the House of Lords. They have privileged speaking rights over other peers – when a bishop wants to speak, others are expected to give way and they are exempted from the portions of the Code of Conduct of the Lords that forbid payment for providing advice and services, enabling them to advocate on behalf of the Church of England.
SNP spokesperson Pete Wishart MP described the bishops as ‘A historic remnant from medieval times that… is totally absurd.’ As he noted the UK is a ‘multi-faith and no-faith complex democracy, where so few people actually attend their Church.’ Currently over half the population are non-religious while only 12% are Anglican even less regularly attend church.
Conservative MP Dr Andrew Murrison said ‘I do not particularly want to see our legislature populated by people who are there because they are representative of one particular faith community in this country. I am a practising Anglican and I value the views of bishops—of course I do—but it is simply not right to have them being politicians in dog collars… I would much rather that they were in their dioceses engaged in the cure of souls. That is where I, as an Anglican, want to see them.’
Speaking for the Government, Minister without Portfolio Ellie Reeves MP rejected the amendments on the grounds that ‘this is a focussed Bill which delivers on a manifesto commitment to bring about immediate reform. The Bill has the simple objective of removing the remaining 92 spaces reserved for hereditary peers from the House of Lords, thereby completing the process started in 1999.’ Ultimately the Government was concerned that the Bill should stick only to what was in its manifesto, which meant removing the hereditary peers but not the bishops.
Given the wide range of support from multiple parties it is clear that pressure is building to remove the unfair and undemocratic right for the 26 reserved places for Church of England bishops.
The public overwhelmingly agrees that bishops should not automatically be granted a right to sit in the House of Lords. A survey conducted by YouGov for the Times found that 62 per cent of British adults believe that no religious leaders should have ‘an automatic right to seats’ in Parliament. This sentiment will only have increased with the shift towards a less religious society.
Humanists UK Director of Public Affairs and Policy Richy Thompson said:
‘It is clear after today that there is an increasingly wide range of support to remove the bishops from the House of Lords. After the hereditary peers are removed from the Lords, the bishops should be next. We hope the Government recognises the need to quickly remove this undemocratic and discriminatory arrangement.’
Notes:
For further comment or information, media should contact Humanists UK Director of Public Affairs and Policy Richy Thompson at press@humanists.uk or phone 0203 675 0959.
Read the Hansard of the debate.
Read more about our work on bishops in the Lords.
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