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The House of Lords could mushroom to 1,000 peers by 2031, costing the taxpayer millions

Members of the House of Lords are pictured during the State Opening of Parliament  - AFP
Members of the House of Lords are pictured during the State Opening of Parliament - AFP

The House of Lords is on track to reach 1,000 members by 2031, it was claimed on Tuesday, taking their total annual cost to approximately £83 million.

Membership of the unelected House of Lords has grown from 675 peers at the beginning of the 21st century to over 800 today. The House of Commons, in contrast, has 650 MPs.

If the current rate of growth continues unabated, the Electoral Reform Society forecasts that the chamber will reach 1,000 members in just over a decade

It comes as 13 new peers have been appointed to the House of Lords, including three by the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who, in 2015, said he didn’t “think there should be any more appointments to the House of Lords”.

At a glance | How members of the House of Lords are appointed
At a glance | How members of the House of Lords are appointed

While members of the House of Lords are unsalaried they are able to claim up to £300 as a “daily allowance”, as well as expenses to cover their travel to and from Parliament to their homes.

The Government disclosed last year that the average cost of a peer was £83,000, meaning the latest appointees could cost taxpayers more than a £1 million a year.

The chamber has come under heavy criticism in recent months after inflicting 15 defeats on the Government’s European Union Withdrawal Bill.

House of Lords Brexit
House of Lords Brexit

The latest cluster of appointments come in spite of a report at the end of last year by the Lord Speaker, Lord Fowler, which recommended that the chamber be reduced to 600 members using a “two-out, one-in” process.  

Darren Hughes, the chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: “These new Peers will cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands every year – at a time when many public services are being cut back.

"The House of Lords, even at its current size, is an affront to democracy – yet politicians keep packing it with more donors and former politicians.

"Rather than dishing out immense sums rewarding ex-MPs and donors, we need a revising chamber that can truly command the public’s support. Voters have had enough of the rolling expenses burden that is the second chamber – it’s time for a much smaller, fairly-elected upper house."

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