THE SNP are set to lodge a series of amendments in an attempt to sabotage Labour's House of Lords legislation.
It comes as the bill is set to come before the House of Commons on Tuesday.
SNP deputy leader Pete Wishart will lodge an amendment to see the Lords abolished entirely, but he will also lodge a further amendment to force peers to pay income tax on their parliamentary pay.
The tax-free pay — currently worth up to £361 per day — is payable to members of the House of Lords for any day they turn up in Parliament, even just to sign in to confirm their attendance.
Last year, lords claimed more than £20 million in attendance allowances — all tax free. The SNP said that this means peers avoided up to £9m in income tax last year.
The cost of the House of Lords was also £212m in 2023, according to research from the House of Commons Library commissioned by the SNP.
Wishart (below) has now challenged Labour MPs in Scotland to back his amendments which he says are the “only viable option for anyone who believes in democracy.”
He said: “Unlike the Westminster parties, the SNP want the House of Lords abolished – plain and simple. There’s no justification for this undemocratic and outdated institution to exist any longer and it’s a complete joke for their members not to pay a single penny of income tax on their salary for simply turning up.
“At the very least Scottish Labour MPs should join me in forcing Lords to cough up and pay tax on their £342 a day pay – that’s the only viable option for anyone who believes in democracy, but if they won’t then they must explain to voters why they believe they should pay tax, but ermine clad Labour big wigs in the Lords shouldn’t."
The senior SNP figure added: “The Labour Party has repeatedly broken its promise to abolish the House of Lords for more than a century and, frankly, this embarrassingly limited bill is 114 years too little, too late. Voters were promised change, but instead Sir Keir Starmer has ripped up his election pledges, and continued stuffing the Lords with Labour Party donors and cronies as it suits him.
"The undemocratic House of Lords is an archaic institution of the kind you'd find in a banana republic and it's second-only in size to the Congress of China costing taxpayers more than £200m a year. If it was any other country, the government would rightly think it utterly corrupt, but while the Labour Party may have watered down their promises on Lords reform, our values in the SNP remain clear – abolish it and abolish it now.”
A House of Lords spokesperson said: “Mr Wishart’s statement concerns amendments he is seeking to table to legislation before the House of Commons. As such it would not be appropriate for the House of Lords Administration to comment of the merits or otherwise of his amendments.
“In terms of a factual response to the issues he raises, Members of the House of Lords do not receive a salary. They are eligible to claim attendance allowance for days they attend the House and undertake Parliamentary duties. Like MPs not all work undertaken by Members of the Lords takes place in the Chamber and voting lobbies, so it would be wrong to conclude that a member had done no work based on a Hansard search alone.
“The House of Lords is a busy and effective revising Chamber. The allowances system is designed to ensure Members from all parts of the UK can make an important contribution to improving legislation and holding the Government to account.”
