Labour's plan for hereditary peers is more constitutional vandalism
The Labour Party has presided over many acts of constitutional vandalism down the years and the removal of the remaining 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords represents another ill-judged measure motivated by political advantage and class envy.
The Lords today begins four days of detailed scrutiny of the Government's abolition Bill in a rearguard action by the hereditaries that they know is doomed to fail.
The legislation was promised by Labour in its manifesto and passed the Commons by 435 to 73. Even if the Lords manage to drag out proceedings they will be ground down in the end by the Government's massive majority among MPs, who will have the final say.
But that is no reason not to fight to the bitter end against a so-called reform that will make the governance of the nation worse, not better. Many of the hereditaries bring expertise and specialist knowledge unavailable to other peers, not least in land management and countryside matters.
Just as they are about to be shown the exit, dozens of placemen and women are coming through the entrance, many of them former Labour MPs or party aides. Sir Keir Starmer has created 37 life peers since he took office in July. The hereditary peers set to leave comprise 45 Tories and 33 crossbenchers and just four Labour peers.
This is being sold to the country as the completion of unfinished business and a necessary break with an outdated hereditary principle, though that argument is not applied to the head of state because Labour knows that would be deeply unpopular.
As Lord Strathclyde, former Tory leader in the Lords and one of those facing the axe, observed: 'It is a partisan act to remove (Sir Keir's) opponents while stuffing the place with his friends.'
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