Public to choose `people's peers' in Blair's new House of Lords

ORDINARY PEOPLE will sit as "people's peers" in a reformed House of Lords under sweeping proposals to be unveiled by the Government today.

After the 750 hereditary peers lose their right to sit and vote in the Lords next year, members of the public will be able to nominate another person to sit in the second chamber as a life peer.

The surprise move, to be announced in a White Paper today, is part of Tony Blair's drive to head off Tory allegations that the Lords will be packed with "Tony's cronies" handpicked by the Prime Minister after the hereditaries disappear from Parliament.

Those nominated as "people's peers" will be vetted by a new seven-member Appointments Commission, which will consider the special qualities they could bring to the legislative process.

Initially, the number of ordinary people joining the Lords is expected to be limited to about 20. But ministers will today argue that the symbolic move will be an "important modernising step" which ensures the House becomes more representative of ordinary people. They would sit during the "transitional" House which will exist between the removal of the hereditaries and the introduction of a new, partly elected second chamber.

If the "people's peers" proved popular, the idea could form part of "stage two" of Labour's reforms and the number of them could be increased. In the new-look chamber, which Mr Blair hopes to get on the statute book before the next general election, the "people's peers" would sit alongside some members elected directly by the voters and others nominated from the planned regional assemblies for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Allowing the public to put names forward mirrors the change to the honours list brought in by John Major, which has led tothousands of people being nominated each year.

Once the new commission had approved such a nomination for a "people's peer", Mr Blair would rubber-stamp the name and forward it to Buckingham Palace. Ministers have decided the Queen will retain the final say on who is raised to the peerage, to answer Tory claims that abolishing the hereditaries would undermine the hereditary monarchy. Mr Blair is to give up his "sole power of patronage" to appoint peers, although he would still nominate Labour representatives in the second chamber.

The White Paper is part of a three-pronged plan for Lords reform to be announced today in parliamentary statements by Margaret Beckett, the Leader of the Commons, and Baroness Jay, Leader of the Lords.

They will set up a Royal Commission to produce proposals for "stage two". It will report by the end of this year to enable Mr Blair to fast-track his reform plan. It will be chaired by Lord Butler, who retired as cabinet secretary and head of the civil service a year ago. The Government's terms of reference for the commission will make clear that the wholly elected Commons would remain supreme over a partly elected second chamber. The new House of Lords would get greater powers to amend legislation but it would not be able to block financial measures such as the Budget.

The Bill to scrap the 800-year-old rights of the hereditaries to sit and vote in the Lords will reveal that the 750 peers who inherited their titles will also be deprived of their "club rights" - such as free parking and use of the restaurants and tea-rooms at the Palace of Westminster. "It will be the end of using Parliament as a gentleman's club and living like a lord at the taxpayers' expense," one minister said.

The Bill is expected to be amended during its passage through the Lords so that it will grant a temporary reprieve to 91 of the hereditaries until "stage two" takes effect. This formed the compromise plan negotiated secretly with Mr Blair by Lord Cranborne, former Tory leader in the Lords, which led to him being sacked by William Hague.

Ministers are dangling the Cranborne proposals as a "carrot" before Tory peers in the hope that the reprieve will persuade them not to use their majority to delay the Bill for a further year.

Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Upper House, said that the Opposition would oppose the measure vigorously in both Houses because it was a "bad" and "half-baked" Bill. But Lord Strathclyde said the Tories would back the Cranborne proposals to save some of the hereditaries.

The Proposals

t Hereditary peers to lose their rights to sit and vote in the Lords t People's peers to be appointed from suggestions by the public t Royal Commission to report within one year t Stage two reform - partly elected upper house - to be law before the election t An independent body will vet the creation of peers, including crossbenchers to stamp on `cronyism'