19/10/1999

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Andrew Sparrow

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Lords Bill challenge by Mayhew is rejected

A TORY attempt to have the House of Lords Bill declared illegal was blocked yesterday by three Law Lords.

They rejected a complaint from Lord Mayhew of Twysden, the former Northern Ireland Secretary, who argued that the Bill as presently drafted should not stop hereditary peers sitting in the chamber until the general election.

The Law Lords' decision was welcomed by Baroness Jay, the Leader of the Lords, but she insisted that the Lords should never have voted to refer it to the Committee for Privileges in the first place.

She said: "This whole exercise has been an expensive charade. The committee should never have been asked to hear the case, but the Tories have abused their majority in the House of Lords to force it through."

Lord Mayhew said that he had had "a very good run" and that the committee had been "deeply interested" in the points raised during the two-day hearing. Michael Beloff, QC, representing Lord Mayhew, argued that the Bill was flawed because it would stop peers sitting in the Lords "by virtue of a hereditary peerage" whereas in fact they were entitled to be there because they had received a Writ of Summons.

At the end of the hearing Lord Slynn of Hadley, the Law Lord chairing the committee, said: "It is the unanimous opinion of the committee that the House of Lords Bill would remove the right to sit and vote for all hereditary peers who have answered their Writ of Summons . . . from the end of the session in which the Bill is passed."

A second challenge will begin today, when the committee considers a complaint from another peer who is arguing that the Bill contravenes the Act of Union with Scotland because it does not guarantee Scotland seats in the chamber.

The Government has estimated that legal costs to the taxpayer of these two cases will be around £100,000. A third threat will come on Wednesday, when peers will debate two motions saying that the Bill should be referred to the Examiners for an opinion as to whether it is hybrid.