Mark Drakeford says he would not accept seat in House of Lords

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Mark Drakeford would not accept a seat in the House of Lords if asked, the First Minister of Wales has said.

The Welsh Labour leader described the unelected Upper House of Parliament as a “democratic anachronism” when asked if he would accept a peerage in order to swell Labour’s numbers in the chamber.

There are currently 175 Labour peers in the Lords, compared with 270 Conservatives.

Baroness Smith of Basildon, Labour’s leader in the Lords, recently told the House magazine that the party would need to “refresh our numbers” in the Lords in the coming years, as existing Labour peers age.

Asked by the PA news agency if he would accept a peerage to bolster the number of Labour lords, the First Minister of Wales said: “I will not be looking to, if I were ever to be asked – I would not be looking to become a member of an unelected House of Lords.”

He added: “I simply don’t believe that that is the right way to run things in a democracy.”

Mr Drakeford is a supporter of Labour former prime minister Gordon Brown’s proposals to replace the House of Lords with an elected upper chamber, described as an “assembly of the nations and regions”.

The outgoing First Minister suggested these were long-term reforms, and not something an incoming Labour government would be able to carry out immediately.

Mr Drakeford said: “I don’t say for a minute that they all have to be done on the first day, but there is a journey of House of Lords reform that we need to embark upon.

“The fact that there are hereditary peers still making laws in this country is surely, well if I was to call it a democratic anachronism, that would be giving you the kindest description I can think of.”

He added: “There are immediate steps that a Labour Government ought to take on a journey to a reformed second chamber, much smaller, representing as the Brown report says the nations and the regions, elected, not appointed.

“That is not going to come straight away, but while the House of Lords remains as it is now, bloated, unelected, not responsible to anybody… that is not a place where I am planning to spend my time.”