Lords Speaker warns of fully elected Upper House of Parliament

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The Speaker of the House of Lords will today warn that a fully elected second house could threaten Parliament's ability to pass good and effective legislation.

< p>Lord McFall of Alcluith's warning comes just days after Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer gave his support to a lean and 'democratically legitimate' upper house.

Sir Keir described the current House not elected as 'indefensible' and said he hoped to be able to implement the reform plans drawn up by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown during the first term of a Labor government.

But in his first major speech on the future of the Lords today, Lord McFall will warn of possible negative consequences of a move to a fully elected chamber, and warns that cross-party consensus will be needed to a viable reform.

Da In an address to the Hansard Society, he will suggest that the Burns Committee, which previously produced recommendations to reduce the size of the Lords, could conduct a "fundamental and consensus review of feasible options" for the future of the House.

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In his report on Monday, Mr Brown said a Labor government should ‘eliminate’ the Lords and replace it with an elected Assembly of Nations and Regions.

And Starmer said that he wanted change to happen within five years of taking office, as part of a package of constitutional reforms aimed at fixing "a pattern (that) has stunted our politics and stunted our economy". p>

But critics of the regime have warned that an elected Upper House is likely to move away from its current role of scrutiny and review and seek to compete with the Commons for legislative power.

Lord McFall - a former Labor MP - will accept a today the need for a reduction in the size of the Chamber of 800 members. But he will stress the value of a 'separate and complementary' House of Commons, rather than a copy of it.

"A fully elected House could present fundamental challenges and threaten both the balance of our constitution and our ability through parliament to come up with good and effective legislation,” he will say.

“We need to be clear that reform proposals, if they must be viable, require the commitment and endorsement of government, political parties through parliament.

"Previous unsuccessful attempts to...