Lords Temporal
The Lords Temporal are secular members of the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament. These can be either life peers or hereditary peers, although the hereditary right to sit in the House of Lords was abolished for all but ninety-two peers during the 1999 reform of the House of Lords. The term is used to differentiate these members from the Lords Spiritual, who sit in the House as a consequence of being bishops in the Church of England.[1][2]
History[edit]
Membership in the Lords Temporal was once an entitlement of all hereditary peers, other than those in the peerage of Ireland. Under the House of Lords Act 1999, the right to membership was restricted to 92 hereditary peers.[3]
Further reform of the House of Lords is a perennially-discussed issue in British politics. However, no additional legislation on this issue has passed the House of Commons since 1999. The Wakeham Commission, which debated the issue of lords' reform under then Prime Minister Tony Blair, proposed making some of the Lords Temporal elected positions.[4] This plan, which was widely criticized, failed to advance in the House of Commons.[5] Additional proposals were made under the coalition government of Prime Minister David Cameron to reduce the size of the House of Lords to 450, directly elect at least some of the Lords Temporal, and allow members of the House of Commons to run for election as Lords Temporal. None of these proposals passed.[6]