What constitutional reforms have happened since 1997?

Question 1

What is significant about 1997?

Answer 1

1997 -> Tony Blair -> New Labour -> Constitutional Reform

Question 2

Describe House of Lords reform

Answer 2

• hereditary principle undermined legitimacy -> Labour determined to remove the right of the hereditary peers
• majority of the HoL were hereditary which outnumbered the life peers
• 1999: legislation to reform the Upper House; at this time 1,330 Lords were eligible
• Labour persuaded their case by still allowing 92 hereditary peers
• whoever a hereditary peer dies or resigns another Lord is elected to that position -> ironically, the hereditary peers constitute the only democratic element of the HoL
• memberships were now to be based of merit & accomplishment rather than birth right
• House of Lords Appointment Committee (HOLAC) established in order to nominate a small proportion of crossbench life peers
• in 2022 Keir Starmer sought to address problems by promising to abolish the HoL & replace it with an elected Assembly of Nations and Regions