New move to abolish the bishops’ bench in House of Lords

A fresh bid has been made to remove automatic seats for bishops in the House of Lords through the hereditary peers bill.

Douglas Hogg, who sits in the House of Lords as Viscount Hailsham, has this week tabled an amendment to the bill which would remove the 26 seats automatically given to Church of England bishops.

The bill is intended to remove members of the House of Lords who inherit the right to a seat. The National Secular Society argues that automatic places in the House of Lords for bishops are just as unjustifiable as those given by hereditary principle. Last year, the NSS worked with a cross-party group of MPs to support a similar amendment when the bill was in the House of Commons. Labour whipped MPs to vote against the amendment, which was defeated.

Another amendment targeting the bishops' bench was tabled by David Maclean, who sits in the Lords as Lord Blencathra. His amendment would limit the number of CofE bishops to five – but also introduce a requirement to give seats to five other faith representatives.

These five representatives would be appointed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodist Church, the Free Churches Group, the Chief Rabbi and the Muslim Council of Britain.

The NSS warned against any moves towards a 'multifaith bench', saying it would add further division and religious interference in Parliament.

Some of the faith groups referenced in Maclean's amendment are highly controversial. Since 2009, successive British governments have maintained a policy of "non-engagement" with the Muslim Council of Britain based on concerns that the group does not sufficiently represent Muslim views, and that some of its officials have made favourable remarks about extremists.

The bill is currently at committee stage.

NSS: Bishops' bench "undemocratic", "unfair" and "unacceptable"

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "We welcome this renewed attempt to extend the hereditary peers bill to the bishops.

"There is no justification at all for giving automatic seats to individuals in the upper house just because they represent a religious group. Doing so is undemocratic, unfair and allows an unacceptable, privileged platform for the Church of England to push for its interests.

"We urge Lords to support this amendment to remove the bishops.

"We also warn against attempts to introduce more explicit faith representation in the House of Lords. Including representatives from more religions would be extremely divisive and open the door to even more religious interference in Parliament."