An academic colleague came to see me at the House yesterday. When a vote was called, he said to me ‘there is still a Conservative majority in the House, isn’t there?’ He is a specialist in British politics! This view appears still to be widely held. I had to point out that, since the House of Lords Act 1999, no one party has had more than thirty per cent of the membership of the House. Indeed, there are three groups of roughly equal size: Labour, Conservative, and the cross-benchers – each with just over or under 200 members – and the Liberal Democrats with almost 80 members. To carry the House, the government has to persuade another party or the cross-benchers to support it. If the Conservatives win the next election, they will be in the same position.
The current line-up in the House, as reported in the latest House Magazine, is: Labour 216, Conservatives 202, Cross-benchers 196, Liberal Democrats 78, Archbishops and Bishops 26, UKIP 2, Green 1. There also 12 law lords and several non-aligned peers.
I thought you’d overlooked the Plaid Cymru peers, but it seems not..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/betsanpowys/2008/03/lordsawaiting_and_waiting.html
Although I did think Dafydd Elis-Thomas was in there, but maybe he is down as one of the independents..
Yes, peers from other parties, including Ulster Unionists and Democratic Unionists, as well as Dafydd Elis-Thomas, are included among the cross-benchers. I gather there has been some thought given to whether the Unionists should sit and be designated as a distinct entity. The cross-bench category is rather a broad one and variously includes people who have had party affilitions but who, because of the positions to which they are appointed, have to move from party to a detached designation.
As a crossbencher with no connections to political parties, it was rather a surprise to me (but turns out to be one of the most rewarding aspects of working in the Lords) that I need to work collaboratively with colleagues in the opposition Labour and LibDem benches to be successful in any amendment. I don’t think I had realised the key hand held by the Lib Dems in the Lords. I made a close alliance during the passage of the Mental Health Bill which proved to be of enduring usefulness in other matters too. Not that we agree on everything but I have learnt to listen very carefully to opposition colleagues’ arguments. Of course it’s always better to try to get a cross party coalition to persuade colleagues in Government first and I have already seen that happen in the forthcoming Health and Social Care Bill. Why am I doing this? I should be writing my speech for second reading (ie first major debate)on Tuesday.
How successful is the Government in getting its bills through? In a situation where the ruling party only controls about a quarter of the seats in a parliamentary chamber, it must have to engage in a lot of wheeler-dealing, suffer a lot of defeats, or rely on the Lords to ‘know its place’, as it were.