Exclusive:SNP urged to reconsider House of Lords membership

Lord Strathclyde, a hereditary peer and Conservative, said something is "missing" in the Lords due to the absence of Scottish nationalists.

It came as he accused Labour of carrying out a "purge" of hereditary peers aimed at making space for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's friends.

Hereditary peers who have not been made life peers will no longer have a right to sit in the Lords once the current parliamentary session ends, expected later this spring.

It follows the passage of legislation abolishing the remaining 92 seats reserved for hereditary peers. There are currently 85 bloodline members, the majority of whom – 44 – are Conservative.

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Speaking to The Scotsman, Lord Strathclyde said: "I have long been a champion of sending nationalist supporters to the House of Lords. There are already representatives of Plaid Cymru and the Greens and no doubt Reform as well.

"It is part of the House of Lords which is missing that there are no Scottish nationalists in the House of Lords, and they should reconsider their ban on coming to the House of Lords."

The SNP refuses to nominate members to the Lords and argues it should be abolished. However, the issue has been a source of debate within the nationalist movement.

In 2024, Ian Blackford, the SNP’s former Westminster leader, reportedly suggested the party should drop its opposition to membership during a meeting with student journalists.

And last year, Chris McEleny, a former aide to Alex Salmond, said it was “time for Scottish nationalists to take up their seats to bring a dose of disruption to the House of Lords”.

Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru has one peer and the Greens have two representatives in the Lords.

Responding to Lord Strathclyde’s comments, SNP MSP Rona McKay said: "It's a thanks but no thanks. The SNP is focused on delivering Scotland a fresh start with independence - our goal is to be rid of the undemocratic House of Lords for good, not join it."

Elsewhere, Lord Strathclyde, who served as leader of the Lords between 2010 and 2013, described Labour’s removal of hereditary peers from the upper chamber as a “purge”.

He added: "I don't see how one could see it any other way. It's not a reform. We were promised a reform back at the end of the last century. Labour promised a reform and nothing has happened.

"There's no nod to democracy. There's no greater representation. There is nothing. Just get rid of the old and put in the new."

He said it was "simply to make space for the Prime Minister's friends", adding: "It's get rid of your opponents and pack the place with your pals. That is not a good way to govern the country and it's an invitation for future governments to behave in the same way."

Lord Strathclyde said the second chamber is “crying out for reform” and accused Labour of breaking its pledge to carry this out.

The majority of hereditary peers were removed under the last Labour government in 1999, but 92 were allowed to remain in the Lords on a temporary basis until "second stage" proposals for reform were agreed.

"Once the executive decides who can and who cannot sit, particularly who cannot sit in the second chamber, that is a very dangerous game as we see from so many other countries that have done exactly that, particularly when they are not trying to create a greater reform,” Lord Strathclyde, who is the son of the late Tory MP Tam Galbraith, said.

"In this case, there was a commitment given by the Labour Party, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, in 1999 that there would be a stage two reform, a proper, well thought through reform in the next Labour government. We've been waiting 25 years for that and it has not come."

He added: "The principle is that the government pledged itself to make a proper reform of the House and has not done so. That's the principle. That's the important principle.

"I'm not interested in making the case for heredity or for anything else. But simply to throw out your opponents and replace them with your own supporters strikes me as being wrong."

A UK government spokesperson said: “The removal of the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords in one of the biggest reforms to Parliament in a generation, ending a system where legislative power could be passed down by inheritance rather than earned through public service.

“We have worked with all sides of the House of Lords to remove this archaic and undemocratic principle, and are taking further concrete steps on reform, including progress towards a retirement age and a participation requirement.”