IT’S a place where you can be paid £342 a day, more than half of your colleagues are over the age of 70 and the longest serving has clocked up an incredible 60 years.
Welcome to the House of Lords, the unelected upper parliamentary chamber in the UK which has come under renewed scrutiny following the publication of Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.
The former prime minister’s seven nominations for life peers include controversial appointments such as former special adviser Charlotte Tranter, who will become the youngest member of the House of Lords aged just 29.
She has made the jump from being a parliamentary intern to a Baroness in the space of just six years, according to reports.
Another new peer at the age of just 31 is Johnson’s spokesperson Ross Kempsell, along with Shaun Bailey, who unsuccessfully ran for London mayor in 2021 and was pictured breaking lockdown rules in 2020 at a party at Conservative headquarters in London.
The age of the prospective new peers is far below the average for all 777 members eligible to attend proceedings – which is 71 years old according to data from the House of Lords.
A little more than a third are in the 70-79 age bracket, with a quarter aged between 60-69 years old and around a fifth aged between 80 and 89 years old.
The current statistics show there are six times more peers aged 90-99 years old than in the 30-39 age bracket, at 26 compared to four.
The oldest eligible member is Labour peer Lord Christopher, who entered the House in 1998 and is now 98 years old, while the current youngest is Tory Lord Harlech at 36, who has been there since 2021.
The average length of service for all eligible members is 14 years, but Conservative peer Lord Trefgarne, age 82, has been in the Lords since 29 June 1962.
Overall, there are 821 members of the House of Lords – with no cap on numbers – of which 777 are currently eligible to attend proceedings.
For those ineligible members, 41 have taken a leave of absence or don’t participate as they serve in a senior judicial role.
Three are currently suspended, which includes the Earl of Shrewsbury, a non-affiliated hereditary peer, and Labour-appointed peer Baroness Goudie, who were suspended in January for taking thousands of pounds to promote companies in breach of parliamentary rules.
Northern Irish peer Lord Maginnis of Drumglass was also suspended in December 2020 due to “bullying and harassment” behaviour including “homophobic and offensive language”.
Members of the Lords who are not paid a salary may claim a flat rate daily attendance sum of £342 from April this year, a reduced allowance of £171 or they can choose to make no claim.
A gender breakdown shows over 70% are men – with just 224 women compared to 553 male peers.
Life peers – who cannot pass their title onto their children – make up most of the Lords with 658 members, while there are 89 hereditary peers, 25 bishops and five judicial life peers. The Conservatives have the largest number at 261, while there are 184 crossbench peers, 174 from Labour, 83 from the LibDems and 50 in the “other” category.
The SNP have never nominated anyone for the Lords, with the party holding the principle that they do not believe in an unelected upper chamber.
SNP MP Tommy Sheppard MP said: “It comes as no surprise that disgraced Boris Johnson, in his desperate final act, is stuffing the cramped and unelected House of Lords with even more of his cronies.
“The supporters of Johnson’s lockdown lawbreaking ways should not be rewarded, but rewarded they will be thanks to Westminster’s backwards rules.
“Rishi Sunak must scrap Boris Johnson’s entire honours list – and do so without delay.
“The makeup of that chamber is scandalous in itself, but no more scandalous than its very existence. That we have a completely unelected legislative chamber flies in the face of our so-called democracy under the broken Westminster system.
“Sadly we have no chance of getting rid of it under this current system, with all the Westminster parties having more respect for that archaic institution than they do Scotland’s democracy.”
He added the full powers of independence were needed to get rid of the “undemocratic institutions of Westminster for good”.
A House of Lords spokesperson: “The House of Lords is a busy and effective chamber and plays a vital role in improving legislation, holding the government to account and voting on laws that affect all of us.”
