ABSTRACT
The Labour government of 1967-69 again turned its attention to reform of the composition of the House of Lords. The party manifesto of 1966 declared the intention to introduce reforms to safeguard measures approved by the House of Commons against delay or defeat in the House of Lords. An all-party conference took place in 1967-68, at which substantial cross-party agreement was reached on the proposals for reform. The resultant government White Paper of 196836 proposed that there should be a two tier House. The first tier would consist of 230 voting peers who satisfied a test of attendance on a regular basis. The second tier would consist of peers who remained entitled to attend and to participate in debate, but would not be entitled to vote. The right to a seat in the House of Lords by virtue of succession to a peerage would be removed but existing peers (who did not satisfy the attendance criteria) would either become non-voting peers or might be conferred a life peerage with entitlement to vote. It was recommended that the government of the day should have a small, but not overall, majority of voting peers in the House. The White Paper also recommended that the power of delay by the House of Lords be reduced to a six month period. The White Paper was approved by the House of Lords by 251 votes to 56. An alliance of the far right of the Conservative Party and the left wing of the Labour Party in the House of Commons caused the White Paper to be rejected by 270 votes to 159.
