Peers launch fight to save their vote
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Your support makes all the difference.HEREDITARY peers have built up a fighting fund of more than pounds 100,000 to put their case against the Government when it tries to abolish their voting rights in the House of Lords.
They plan to run a high-profile publicity campaign, including radio ads and public speaking events, emphasising the importance of an independent upper chamber.
A public-relations executive, Emma Ballard, who used to work for Shandwick PR, has been hired to try to "rebrand" hereditary peers as a valuable resource who still have a role to play in the modern world.
Members of the Lords, which includes some of the richest men and women in Britain, have given money to the fund, which has been co-ordinated by Lord Denham, the former Tory chief whip, Lord Feldman and Lady O'Caithan. Donations are still pouring in from supporters of all parties, and even Labour peers are said to have contributed.
The news is further evidence that the hereditary peers are prepared to fight long and hard in their attempt to retain their position. Last week some back-benchers in the Lords threatened to wreck the Government's entire legislative programme if ministers pressed ahead with plans to remove the voting rights of those with inherited titles.
Baroness Jay, the Leader of the Lords, confirmed during the two-day debate that the Government planned to set up a Royal Commission to investigate what form the upper chamber should take after the hereditary peers lose their traditional rights.
That is not enough for the Conservative hereditary peers, who are demanding that the Government should implement "stage-two" reform at the same time as pressing ahead with its first-stage Bill, stripping the hereditaries of their constitutional role.
The issue has created a damaging split in the Shadow Cabinet. William Hague, the Conservative leader, does not want to align the party too closely with the hereditary peers. That would be "hardly appropriate for a party which is meant to be reforming itself to become more in tune with the people", one senior source said.
In particular, Mr Hague is being urged to distance the Conservatives from the old aristocracy by Dr Liam Fox, the constitutional spokesman in the Commons.
However, Viscount Cranborne, the shadow leader of the Lords, strongly believes that the Tories should hold out for full reform of the upper chamber and not agree to the hereditary peers simply being removed.
Mr Hague is coming under increasing pressure to sack Lord Cranborne and replace him with a more "modernising" peer who would take a more radical approach to constitutional reform.
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