RISHI Sunak has given a top ministerial position in the UK Government to a hereditary peer, for the third time in three months.
Timothy Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, the “Earl of Minto”, was made a minister in the Department for Business and Trade on Monday.
Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound joined the Lords in October 2022 after coming second in a by-election to replace two Tory hereditary peers who had retired in July. He received 34 votes.
The Tory peer becomes the third hereditary Lord to be brought into Sunak’s government since the beginning of 2023.
On New Year’s Day, James Younger, termed “Viscount Younger of Leckie”, was handed a role as a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). His responsibilities include maternity benefits, bereavement benefits, child maintenance, and oversight of departmental business.
And in early March, Jonathan Berry, termed “Fifth Viscount Camrose”, was made a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Tommy Sheppard, an SNP MP and his party’s constitutional affairs spokesperson at Westminster, condemned the appointments.
He told The National: “It is outrageous. Proof, if proof were needed, that the entire house of lords is an edifice of ill repute. It ought to be abolished and has no place in a modern system.
“The Government is just determined to put two fingers up at public opinion, and making a point to [promote] hereditary peers is doing that with bells on.
“How they can go to meetings with international peers knowing they are putting unelected people in charge of major sectors is beyond me. But the Tories know no shame.”
Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman also hit out, saying the promotion of hereditary peers to government was an “affront to any understanding of democracy”.
She went on: “For it to happen three times is disgraceful. There can be no room in a democratic government for politicians who cannot be removed by the people they are meant to represent and serve.
"The very idea of the House of Lords is not just undemocratic, it is ridiculous. Behind the pageantry and the pomp, some of them hold extremely powerful positions with no form of accountability whatsoever.
"How can it be that we are in the 21st century and people are still being appointed to such a relic of an institution?
"One of the many benefits of Scottish independence would be the opportunity to finally move away from this arcane system and the generations of unelected and unaccountable peers."
There are 92 seats for hereditary peers in the House of Lords, 42 of which are Conservatives. The newest appointment means more than 7% of the Tory hereditary peers are also ministers in the UK Government.
If a Tory hereditary peer dies or resigns his seat, then the other Tory Lords elect a successor from a select list. It was in a by-election such as this that Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, Berry, and Younger were all elevated to the Lords.
The UK Government said: “Lords ministers are appointed so Parliamentarians in the Second Chamber can hold the UK Government to account. Such scrutiny supports a robust and healthy democracy.”
