RUTH Davidson has not engaged with the House of Lords reform bill in any capacity – despite pledging to work on “reforming the House of Lords into a democratic chamber” before becoming a life peer.
Davidson accepted a peerage from Boris Johnson and joined the unelected Westminster chamber in 2021.
Ahead of taking her seat as “Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links”, she said: “I am keen to make a contribution in areas of importance to me such as gambling reform, end of life choices, and the constitution, and pledge to work with members from all parties and none in reforming the House of Lords into a democratic chamber.”
The former Scottish Tory leader appears to have broken that pledge, as Hansard has no record of her engaging with the UK Government’s House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill in any capacity.
Davidson has not spoken on the bill during the debates in Parliament, or worked on it at committee stage, according to Hansard – the official record of goings on at Westminster.
She has also not asked any written questions about Lords reform.
The last time Davidson spoke in the House of Lords was in January 17, 2024 – 15 months ago. She has only spoken 10 times in total since joining.
On March 11, 2025, she lodged four written questions, two on Long Covid and two on the Armed Forces. Before that, she had not lodged a written question since July 2023.
The UK Government’s Lords reform bill will remove the right of 92 hereditary peers – aristocrats who are in the upper chamber due to an accident of birth – to sit in the chamber. The 92 were given an exemption by previous Labour leader Tony Blair when he reformed the Lords.
Wishart told The National he was “really surprised” Davidson had not contributed in any form to the debate around the Hereditary Peers Bill.
“We get few opportunities to actually make meaningful reform to the House of Lord,” he said. “This is a big one.
“This takes away all the toffs, all the hereditaries, all the people who have a place in the legislature through birthright, and to not even bother to participate in that I think it's quite shocking.”
Wishart, the SNP’s depute leader at Westminster, went on: “I could say I'm disappointed, but it's absolutely entirely predictable that she's done not one thing to try and make any meaningful reform in the House of Lords.
“I'm not surprised in the least that she's done nothing, and it's just, it's such a waste of public money that she travels down there [and] makes no meaningful contribution.”
He added: “I think we are quickly approaching a point where the whole notion of the House of Lords, where its appointees, its cronies, its donors, it's becoming unacceptable to the British public. People like Ruth Davidson only hurry that whole process along.”
Davidson does not have a parliamentary email available on the Lords website through which to contact her.
The House of Lords, as well as the UK and Scottish Conservatives, have been approached for comment in her place.
The news comes after Sky News political editor Beth Rigby said she had "love-bombed" and "fan-girled" over Davidson while she was Scottish Tory leader.
