The House of Lords must be replaced to enable federalism across the UK as an alternative to Scottish independence, former liberal leader David Steel believes.
In a lecture to the Scottish Liberal Club on Tuesday evening, which Lord Steel “assumes” will be his last political speech, he will call for the House of Lords to be replaced with a senate elected by proportional representation.
Lord Steel will argue that federalism should also be “on the agenda” as a “more acceptable way forward than separation from the UK”.
“We have to look to total reform of the House of Lords if we are to argue the genuine case for home rule,” Lord Steel will say.
“The replacement of the Lords by an elected senate is the keystone to federalism.”
Lord David Steel
He suggests the creation of a 500-member upper chamber, 400 of those chosen on a party-political basis by proportional representation, with allocations from each nation.
A further 100 could be chosen by the same electorate, he argues, but would exclude any recent members or known supporters of any political party.
READ MORE: 'The status quo is no longer an option – federalism is the UK's only option' - Sir Malcolm Rifkind
“These would replace the existing valuable wide range of independent expertise at present on the cross benches in the Lords,” he will say,
“A convention could be created where, in a reformed upper House, each section did not vote on matters which did not apply to their territory, thus partly answering the unanswerable West Lothian question.
“Its powers would remain the same as at present – in other words no veto, only delay, and the right to ask the Commons to think again, and no power over finance.”
Lord Steel is also expected to deliver critical comments about former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s “inadequate” attempts to reform the House of Lords during the coalition government.
Lord Steel wants to see the House of Lords replaced
He will say: “Nick Clegg had many virtues but two damning vices – over weening ambition from an early age, and a woeful lack of knowledge of history, especially that of his own party.”
The former MP and MSP retired from the House of Lords and quit the Liberal Democrats earlier this year in the wake of a report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
READ MORE: Barrie Cunning - Scottish Labour’s federalism stance will lead to confusion
The IICSA report told how the political establishment spent decades turning “a blind eye” to allegations of child sexual abuse and cited his failure to act on allegations about Sir Cyril Smith.
The former Holyrood presiding officer said that with the IICSA “not having secured a parliamentary scalp, I fear that I have been made a proxy for Cyril Smith”.
Following the report’s publication, Lord Steel said his Liberal colleague “did not admit to me the truth of the allegations” and added: “Knowing all I know now, I condemn Cyril Smith’s actions towards children.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel