The Politics of Second Chamber Reform: A Case Study of the House of Lords and the Passage of the House of Lords Act 1999

In July 1998 Margaret Jay was appointed Leader of the House of Lords and given an historic task by Tony Blair: to abolish the rights of hereditary peers. She was up against hundreds of Tory Lords, most of them hereditary. Baroness Jay declared: ‘It is my belief that the most thoughtful among the hereditary peers of all political persuasions know that the time has come to say thank you and goodbye.’